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China's security officers, in a brazen display of intolerance toward human rights on Wednesday, forcefully disrupted a Beijing press conference that was intended to spotlight the plight of North Korean refugees inside China.

Organizers of the Jan. 12 press conference had hoped to bring fresh attention to the unsolved disappearance of Kim Dong-shik, a South Korean pastor abducted by North Koreans five years ago.

Meeting at a Beijing hotel, South Korean Rep. Kim Moon-soo and three other parliamentarians of the opposition party organized the press conference. They hoped to draw new attention to the fate of about 300,000 North Korean refugees inside China. They are urging China to "show compassion" to those North Koreans who manage to escape the repressive communist regime of Kim Jong-Il.

Witnesses say shortly before the press conference was to begin at the Beijing Great Wall Sheraton Hotel conference room, several plain-clothed Chinese state security agents, who refused to identify themselves, ordered the meeting to be stopped.

When Rep. Kim began to speak, the agents shut off his microphone and the cut the room's electricity. Chaos ensued as some 40 journalists were shoved out of the room in the dark, and a legislative aide to Rep. Kim was dragged out of the room, according to one eyewitness.

"This incident is a very grievous event that seriously threatens the diplomatic relations between the Republic of Korea and the People's Republic of China," Rep. Kim and other parliamentary members said in a statement.

"We urge the [Chinese] government to punish the person or persons in charge of the dozen or so unidentified ruffians who shoved the reporters out of the conference room and threatened us on several occasions with the use of force."

The press conference was going to highlight a four-day fact-finding mission into the disappearance of Rev. Kim Dong-shik, who North Korean agents abducted five years ago for trying to help North Korean refugees in Yanji, a town in China's Jilin Province near the North Korean border.

A visit was also planned with Choi Young-hoon, a Christian Korean businessman currently serving a five-year sentence in Weifang City Prison for his efforts to help North Korean defectors hiding in China.

The South Korean legislators issued a public statement calling for Choi's release: "We request the Chinese government to immediately release Korean Choi Young-hoon, who has been serving two years in prison after being sentenced a five-year prison term for aiding North Korean refugees."

Several years ago, Choi's wife received from her husband a letter that had been smuggled out of prison. Choi, described by supporters as "an ardent Christian," had written the letter by carefully cutting out letters from his Bible and pasting them into the letter.

"I am suffering in prison not for doing evil but for doing good," read the letter, which was sent to his wife, Bong-soon Kim, and two daughters.

"So I hope that you will not be ashamed of your father for being in prison. I am spending time every day thinking of you and your mother and serving God."

China has been actively cooperating with North Korea in its crackdown on defectors and those who try to help them. China routinely rounds up and repatriates defectors in violation of international law that requires legitimate refugees to be given asylum.

U.S. and South-Korea based human rights groups say they want to see the United States put greater pressure on China to provide political asylum for North Korean defectors.

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January (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49