A North Korean defector made a rare public appearance in China today, criticising Beijing's repatriation of asylum seekers despite alleged warnings from South Korea not to speak out.
Hyeonseo Lee, who escaped from North Korea to China in 1997, called on Beijing to let refugees from her original homeland -- who it routinely sends back -- pass "safely without being caught by the Chinese authorities".
Human rights groups have for decades condemned Beijing for deporting North Korean asylum seekers, who they say face torture and imprisonment when repatriated.
China is North Korea's sole major ally and chief trading partner. It has recently supported UN sanctions on Pyongyang after its fourth nuclear test, but restricts criticism of its neighbour in the media and in public venues. It generally says those deported are illegal economic migrants.
Lee said she was detained and interrogated by police after arriving in China in the 1990s. Though later released, she said she subsequently had to hide from authorities during her near 11-year stay in the country, fearing repatriation.
Speaking at a book festival to promote her recently published title "The Girl With Seven Names" -- which describes living in constant fear of Chinese authorities -- Lee told an audience that China "has no obligation to listen (to) the North Korean regime".
"China is a heaven compared to North Korea", she said, but also described harassment by Chinese police.
"I want to tell the very basic things about what is happening to North Koreans here," she said, speaking in English to an audience of several dozen mostly non-Chinese listeners.
"China is the place we have to cross, but here many people are caught, less than 50 percent will succeed".
Lee said intelligence officials from South Korea, where she now lives, tried to dissuade her from visiting China, warning of possible damage to diplomatic relations.
"They are telling me I had to be careful in China, saying only talk about North Korea, don't ever touch China, especially don't touch the Chinese government," she said.
China's attitude towards North Korea has hardened as Pyongyang continues with an internationally-condemned nuclear program, but it defends the isolated communist state against criticism of its human rights record and routinely censors media which take too critical a stance.
North Korea released a video today showing a nuclear strike on Washington and threatened South Korea with a "merciless military strike" for slandering leader Kim Jong-Un.
