N Korean Defector 'Held By China'

BBC ^ | 2-11-2004

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N Korean defector 'held by China'

A North Korean man who fled with evidence that prisoners are used to test chemical weapons has been detained by China, a human rights worker said. Kang Byong-sop, 58, was stopped last month in Yunnan province while trying to cross into Laos, Kim Sang-hun said.

Mr Kim called on the UK to stop China handing Mr Kang to North Korea, where he faced possible torture or death.

Pyongyang has described claims it used political prisoners to test gases for chemical weapons as "US propaganda".

Mr Kang was the source of a North Korean document, or letter of transfer, which appeared to authorise chemical weapons testing on political prisoners.

China is becoming an accomplice to North Korean crimes

Kim Sang-hun

The document featured in a BBC documentary broadcast this month which also interviewed a man who claimed to have been head of security at North Korea's notorious prison camp 22. While there, he claimed to have seen chemical weapons testing carried out on political prisoners.

Mr Kim, a Christian activist who has helped dozens of North Koreans escape to the South, had contacted Mr Kang and encouraged him to flee North Korea with documentary proof of the testing.

"We knew he had strong feelings that someone had to do something to stop this practise," Mr Kim told BBC News Online.

Mr Kang was an engineer at a chemical factory where the testing allegedly took place. On one occasion, according to Mr Kim, Mr Kang inadvertently witnessed what appeared to be tests being conducted behind a large glass window.

"He saw human hands, scratching the window from the inside," Mr Kim said.

Mr Kang was helped to leave North Korea and arrived in China in July 2003, before travelling across the country in secret.

Mr Kang was detained, with his wife and son and two South Korean helpers, on 4 January, Mr Kim said.

"It appears the North Koreans have found out papers are missing. They offered a lot of bounty money to the Chinese authorities, who were waiting for him," he said.

"This is a clear case where China is becoming an accomplice to North Korean crimes," he said.

Mr Kim said he had kept Mr Kang's identity secret, but that it was now clear North Korea and China knew who he was.

"We don't know what has happened to him, of if he has already been repatriated," he said. "I fear it could already be too late."