SEOUL, South Korea –– Chinese authorities have detained a Korean-American missionary and have questioned dozens of other people suspected of helping North Korean asylum-seekers, a South Korean activist said Tuesday.
Do Hee-yoon, a spokesman for a human rights group, said China's crackdown began after a series of asylum bids at foreign missions in Beijing and the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang.
Joseph Choi, a Korean-American missionary who has been helping North Korean children near the Chinese border, was detained early this month on charges of trying to help North Koreans seek asylum, Do said.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy confirmed the detention of "an American in northeast China" but would not say whether it was Choi, citing reasons of confidentiality.
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan said he had no knowledge of missionaries having been arrested.
But Do, a spokesman for the Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of North Korean Defectors and Abductees, said two South Korean missionaries also have been detained in recent months for allegedly helping North Korean asylum-seekers leave China.
As well, dozens of ethnic Korean aid workers have been questioned, he said. He claimed some of those detained were beaten and deprived of sleep.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled the authoritarian regime and famine in their country are hiding in northeastern China.
China insists they are illegal immigrants, not refugees, and by treaty must be sent home. But it has made exceptions recently for North Koreans who have entered foreign missions in Beijing demanding asylum, allowing them to leave for other countries.
However, it has rejected Japanese demands to hand over five North Koreans detained at the Japanese consulate earlier this month.
Japan has accused Chinese guards of breaking international law by going into its consulate in the northeastern city of Shenyang without permission to grab the five. Beijing insists that Japanese officials gave permission for the detentions.
Kong, the Chinese spokesman, said Tuesday the five were in "good condition" and suggested that one member – said by South Korean activists to be a toddler – was no longer in police custody.
"China has not taken any legal measures against this girl," Kong said at a news conference. "She can do whatever she wants."
Asked what would happen to them, Kong would say only that they would be handled in line with Chinese and international law and in a "humanitarian spirit."