UK - Upper Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber: New Country Guidance on North Korean Asylum Cases

Date: 
Monday, September 29, 2014

In an appeal which concerns the removal of four North Korean nationals to South Korea who had previously applied for refugee status, the UK UT in GP and others (South Korean citizenship) North Korea CG [2014] UKUT 391 (IAC) reiterates much of its previous country guidance submitted in KK and others (Nationality: North Korea) Korea CG [2011] UKUT 92 (IAC)to surmise that there is no risk of refoulement of any North Korean to North Korea from South Korea, whether directly or via China. 

Regarding the applicants submissions that they were at risk of persecution or serious harm in North Korea, given that they were not South Korean citizens and thus ran the risk of being returned to North Korea, the UK UT concluded that “all persons from the Korean Peninsula are treated as returning South Korean citizens”[127]. Furthermore, “wider expert and country evidence indicates that in practice South Korea will not reject any returning person from the Korean Peninsula unless they have acquired another nationality since leaving the Korean Peninsula”[125].

In response to the applicants’ submissions that the process applied by the South Korean authorities to returning North Korean migrants (the 'protection' procedure) breaches the Refugee Convention, the UK UT also highlighted that there were “almost no reports of any human rights abuses during the procedure”[112]. Moreover, the UK UT concluded that after the protection procedure had been completed there was no real risk of persecution to require international protection; persons “receive full South Korean citizenship” (save an obligation to perform military service). Notably, the UK UT surmises that access to resettlement assistance, including housing, training and financial assistance is provided and whilst “former North Koreans may have difficulty in adjusting to South Korea and there may be some discrimination in social integration, employment and housing, this is not at a level which requires international protection“[127].       


26 September 2014

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