It is important that North Koreans outside their country are seen by international bodies as persons in need of international refugee and human rights protection. Their forced return to North Korea is uniformly opposed by UNHCR and other UN bodies as a violation of international law. Today, with declining food reserves and shortages of medicine being reported once again in North Korea, it is critical that the rights of North Koreans to leave their country and be protected from forced returns be internationally defended.  China repatriates about 5,000 North Korean refugees on the basis that they are economic migrants.  They believe they are not in violation of international law, however the fact that the North Korean defector's return results in life in concentration camps, forced abortions, torture and even execution clearly states that China is in direct violation of their signed 1951 convention on the status of refugees and therefore in violation of international law.