§ Mr. DrewTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to the Chinese Government concerning(a) the repatriation of the North Korean refugee Mr. Park Yong-chol (alias Jo Yong-su) from China to North Korea and (b) the mistreatment of the Chinese house church leader Pastor Gong Shengliang while in prison in Hongshan Prison, Wuhan City, Hubei Province. [168799]
§ Mr. RammellWe regularly raise the issue of North Korean border crossers at the biannual UK-China Human Rights Dialogue and on other high level occasions. We are aware of the case of Mr. Park. The European Commission has recently suggested that the EU should raise the matter urgently with the Chinese authorities; this is now under consideration by the EU presidency.
We have raised Pastor Gong Shengliang's case with the Chinese authorities on several occasions. We supported an EU demarche in Beijing in July last year on this case.