North Korean Detainee Release Marks Chinese Policy Shift

[Zeus 7997]

http://news.sky.com/story/1317909/detainee-release-marks-china-policy-shift

A group of North Koreans defectors has been detained on the Chinese border with Laos in the latest crackdown by authorities who repatriate North Koreans found illegally in China.

But in a rare and encouraging sign of a Chinese policy change, Sky News understands that the group are being released rather than returned to North Korea.

The UN body called for China to change the policy, saying that "persons who are forcibly repatriated from China are commonly subjected to torture, arbitrary detention, summary execution and other forms of sexual violence".

Recent strains in the relationship between Beijing and Pyongyang have prompted hopes that China's North Korea policy would be relaxed.