China returns 31 N. Korean refugees

China has repatriated all 31 North Korean refugees it arrested last month despite international pressure against the move, activists said Friday, warning they could face severe punishment. Campaigners fear the refugees could suffer abuse or even face execution for fleeing the country during the mourning period for late leader Kim Jong-Il, who died late last year. Do Hee-Yun, head of the Citizens' Coalition for Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees, said the group of 31 people had been in three separate groups and were arrested in different places in China. "They were returned to the North clandestinely over the past two weeks," Do told AFP. "They are likely to be severely punished as they fled the North during the mourning period." The North has been in mourning since Kim Jong-Il died of a heart attack on December 17. He was succeeded by his youngest son Kim Jong-Un. Rumours have been rife near the border that Jong-Un has issued a shoot-to-kill order against people attempting to cross the border during mourning and has also called for stern punishment for their relatives, Do said. North Korea has in the past treated those who simply crossed the border to find food with relative leniency while punishing severely those who attempted to flee to the South, according to North Korea Intellectuals Solidarity. However, all fugitives are now treated as traitors worthy of severe retribution, the group of North Korean defectors based in Seoul said. Seoul has repeatedly urged Beijing to treat fugitives from the North as refugees and not to repatriate them. China says they are economic migrants and not refugees deserving protection. The UN refugee agency urged Beijing not to send back the North Koreans. Rights watchdog Amnesty International says returnees are sent to labour camps where they are subject to torture. US Representative Chris Smith, co-chairman of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, urged Washington to link treatment of refugees to its decision last week to deliver 240,000 metric tons of food aid to North Korea. More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled to the South since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years. They typically escape on foot to China, hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in the South.