A representative of the families of Japanese abducted by North Korea joined about 80 other people who gathered Thursday before the Chinese Embassy in Washington to protest China's human rights abuses, including the forced return of North Korean refugees.
"We are angered by the continued human rights abuses conducted by the Chinese government on the Sino-(North) Korea border," said Teruaki Masumoto, secretary general of the Association of the Families of Victims Kidnapped by North Korea.
Hosted by the International Campaign to Block the Repatriation of the North Korean Refugees, the protest included supporters from numerous nongovernmental organizations, human rights groups, and family of Japanese and South Koreans abducted by North Korea.
Masumoto, whose sister Rumiko is one of the Japanese abducted by North Korea in the late 1970s and early 1980s, said: "I imagine my own sister who is still in North Korea trying to escape and being kicked back by the Chinese. I just cannot tolerate this inhumane reality that you are now causing toward refugees."