Source: European Parliament
The EU has expressed its concerns about reports regarding the repatriation to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) of North Koreans detained in China and has reiterated the importance of upholding the principle of non-refoulement.
The EU has repeatedly raised this issue with China through diplomatic channels, asking China to refrain from returning North Korean refugees to the DPRK. The EU will continue to urge China to fully respect the principle of non-refoulement.
The EU has noted with concern that foreign citizens remain arbitrarily detained in the DPRK, often following trials that do not conform with international fair trial guarantees, with no information available regarding their health or the conditions of their detention.
The EU will continue to insist that the DPRK must respect its international human rights obligations, including with regard to the cases referred to in the written question.
The EU has called on the DPRK to provide citizens of other countries detained in the DPRK with protections including access to consular assistance and to release persons that have been arbitrarily detained or sentenced after an unfair trial.
The EU in principle does not enumerate individual consular cases in the annual Human Rights Council resolution on human rights in the DPRK.
The cases relating to Myanmar concerned the highest representatives of the democratically elected government, detained after an unjustified, illegal and unconstitutional military coup.