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Critics of China’s “peaceful rise” like to point to the numerous accommodations—large and small—that governments in the region are making to Beijing’s sensitivities. In December, we reported on a deal Japan struck with China on North Korean refugees harbored in its consulates. But it now looks like South Korea is making subtle adjustments as well. Et tu, Brute?
South Koreans living abroad have the right to vote at their consulates. According to the Korea Herald, however, South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC) “plans to prevent North Korea defectors from entering South Korean diplomatic missions in China during the overseas voting period for the general elections.” From March 28 to April 2, people without proper documents to prove their South Korean citizenship will be turned away, apparently in collaboration with Chinese public security.
In principle, North Korean refugees are South Korean citizens (we have never seen any treatment of precisely when refugees secure the right to vote after leaving North Korea). But there is a deeper problem, as National Assemblyman Yoon Sang Hyun commented in statement on the issue. South Korea’s Act on the Protection and Settlement Support of Residents Escaping from North Korea stipulates that the government shall do what the bill’s title suggests, namely, protect and support those who have escaped North Korea and are currently staying overseas (Article 4, section 2). Yoon went so far as to suggest it would be an “abuse of power” for a government agency to limit defectors’ access to diplomatic missions.
It will now be as difficult to get through the gates of a South Korean consulate as it was to escape the oppressive regime in the first place. But we are also concerned about the slippery slope. Does the “temporary” collaboration with Chinese security during the period of free and fair elections open the wedge to a more permanent collaboration on the issue? Or has that concession already been made by Seoul as well as Tokyo?
