And China has a history of returning North Korean defectors to NK, where they await death by labor camp, etc: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/03/china-redoubl

And China has a history of returning North Korean defectors to NK, where they await death by labor camp, etc: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/03/china-redoubling-crackdowns-fleeing-north-koreans# https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/09/03/china-redoubling-crackdo... I've seen this mentioned in a documentary about people fleeing North Korea via China and Thailand as well, and they need to hide themselves from the Chinese as much as they do the DPRK border guards.