**Update: Date Change; New Witnesses**

In recent weeks, international human rights advocates and organizations have called on the Chinese government not to repatriate dozens of North Korean refugees currently detained in China. There is now growing concern that the refugees and their family members may face public execution if the refugees are forcibly returned to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). In January, Kim Jong-un, the "supreme leader" of North Korea, reportedly threatened to "exterminate three generations" of any family with a member caught defecting from North Korea during the 100-day mourning period for the late Kim Jong-il. Despite its obligations under international law, the Chinese government maintains an agreement with North Korea to repatriate North Korean refugees.

The Commission hearing will address the current predicament of North Korean refugees who have been detained by Chinese authorities in recent weeks. Witnesses will discuss the factors driving North Koreans to flee to China. Witnesses will also address the legality of China's forced repatriations of North Koreans and relevant humanitarian concerns.

The hearing was webcast live.

Witnesses:

PANEL I

Suzanne Scholte, President, Defense Forum Foundation; Chairman and Founding Member of the North Korea Freedom Coalition

Songhwa Han, Former North Korean refugee detained in China, repatriated to North Korea, and detained in North Korea

Jinhye Jo, Former North Korean refugee detained in China, repatriated to North Korea, and detained in North Korea

PANEL II

T. Kumar, Director, International Advocacy for Amnesty International USA

Greg Scarlatoiu, Executive Director, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

Michael Horowitz, Senior Fellow, Hudson Institute

Statement submitted for the record by Roberta Cohen, Chair, Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, and Non-Resident Senior Fellow, the Brookings Institution

A complete transcript of this CECC Hearing is available in PDF and TEXT.

CECC Hearings are open to the public. No RSVP is necessary.

Click here to download a copy of the Commission's full 2011 Annual Report.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China, established by the U.S.-China Relations Act of 2000 as China prepared to enter the World Trade Organization, is mandated by law to monitor human rights, including worker rights, and the development of the rule of law in China, and to prepare an Annual Report to the President and Congress. The Commission by mandate also maintains a database of information on political prisoners in China-individuals who have been imprisoned by the Chinese government for exercising their civil and political rights under China's Constitution and laws or under China's international human rights obligations. The Commission's reporting and its Political Prisoner Database are available to the public online via the Commission's Web site, http://www.cecc.gov/.