Author: Ju-min Park

SEOUL/BEIJING – Border police in China’s northeast have been tasked with identifying and expelling undocumented migrants, including North Korean defectors, through increased surveillance measures. Official documents and sources reveal that China has intensified border security with quotas for deportations, new deportation centers, smart facial-recognition cameras, and boat patrols along the 1,400-kilometer frontier with North Korea. Moreover, Chinese authorities are monitoring the social media accounts of North Koreans in China and collecting their fingerprints, voice, and facial data. This heightened surveillance is making it increasingly challenging for North Korean defectors to escape capture and seek asylum in South Korea or other…