Busting of a smuggling ring in Guangxi Province blocks commonly used North Korean escape routes
With Chinese authorities cracking down on the most common escape route from North Korea, the prospects for defection via a third country have grown bleak (Image: iStock.com/domhnall20)
Police have busted an extensive smuggling ring in China’s southernmost port, near the border with Vietnam, which has made it more difficult for escaping North Koreans to reach Southeast Asian countries.
Authorities in the port city of Fangchenggang in Guangxi Province arrested 139 people allegedly trying to cross the border, according to China Central TV on September 3, unearthing a large people smuggling operation.
The city lies on one of the main routes taken by North Korean escapees desperate to flee China which treats them as illegal immigrants and sends them back. Those hoping to make it to South Korea have three choices of escape routes. Some head northwest for the autonomous region of Nei Mongol and cross into Mongolia, where they are received as refugees. The rest go southwest to Yunnan Province and try to cross into Myanmar, Laos, or Thailand, while others head for Guangxi Province and Vietnam.
The exposure of the smuggling ring in Guangxi has compromised the route into Vietnam. It follows the arrest of 15 defecting North Koreans last month in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan Province, and the subsequent detention of brokers who were guiding them to Southeast Asia, according to an official at the mission center involved.
So far, it has been confirmed that the 139 people detained in Fangchenggang were not North Koreans. According to local Chinese officials, most were Chinese and Vietnamese involved in voice-phishing groups and distributors of luxuries, rare metals, and fake luxury bags.
A North Korean identified only by his surname Lee who has been working with Chinese brokers in China, said the incident had put on hold plans to bring defectors to South Korea via Thailand and Vietnam in early September. Most of the brokers working that route are currently unreachable, he said.
Human rights groups and church missions that assist North Koreans worry that as Public Security in China tightens its vigilance in border areas, it will become more difficult for defectors to escape to Southeast Asian countries in the future. They emphasized that they’re considering this current situation with grave concern and that they expect significant disruptions to the rescue efforts.
For ten years, Seiul served in the North Korean People's Army (KPA), including the 9th Corps. After completing his military service, he taught mathematics at Cheongjin Mining and Metallurgy University. In 2008, he defected to South Korea, where he founded the National Association of North Korean Defectors, an NGO that aims to promote democratization in North Korea and improve human rights. He majored in computer technology at Pyongyang University of Automation, a top state institution known for cyber training and producing hackers for the KPA.
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