A recent decision by the refugee appeal tribunal to side with Ottawa and overturn a North Korean woman’s refugee status has sent shockwaves among asylum seekers who fled the Communist regime.

Minseo Kim, 45, and her daughter, Sangah Rhee, 2, came to Canada via South Korea in early 2013 and were granted asylum by the Immigration and Refugee Board in April.

However, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander successfully appealed the decision with the board’s newly established refugee appeal division, arguing that Kim and Rhee should not be recognized as refugees because North Koreans are automatically South Korean citizens.

“When I passed the refugee hearing, I cried for joy,” Kim, a kindergarten teacher from Pyongyang, said through an interpreter. “When I received the decision of the government appeal, I cried for sadness.”

Historically, North Korean refugees have had an acceptance rate over 50 per cent, peaking at 72 per cent in 2010. However, the number of claims has been steadily creeping up. In 2012 alone, 718 new claims were received, prompting concern from the federal government.

Chung Woong Cho, a member of Toronto’s Alpha Korean United Church — a rarity because the congregation consists mostly of North Korean exiles — believes Kim’s case to be the first in which a positive North Korean asylum decision has been challenged by Ottawa.

“This is setting a precedent,” said Cho, who came to Canada in 1972 and has helped his former compatriots through the church. “The good days for North Korean refugees are over. Canada’s door is closed.”

Citizenship and Immigration Canada said the department’s new “ministerial reviews and interventions” pilot program was part of the reforms to the refugee system implemented last December.

“Under the project, officials will intervene in cases where there are issues related to program integrity, such as concerns about an individual’s credibility or citizenship,” department spokesperson Sonia Lesage said in an email.

Last winter, said Lesage, Canadian officials in Seoul and the project administrators were alarmed by a rising trend in asylum claims by North Korean nationals.

Consistently more refugees from both Koreas have applied for asylum in Canada than in the United States, which received only 60 Korean claims in 2012.

“In cases where North Korean asylum claimants in Canada hold South Korean citizenship, the onus is on the claimant to demonstrate that he/she is facing persecution or harm in both North Korea and South Korea. Otherwise they would be expected to return to South Korea,” Lesage said.

Although South Korea offers resettlement assistance to people who have fled the north since the end of the Korean War, which divided the country 60 years ago, Cho said the migrants face skepticism and animosity.

“The government is saying all North Koreans are South Korean nationals,” said Cho. “It’s like rich people looking at poor people: South Koreans see them as a burden. They subconsciously hate them and reject them with suspicion, because they see North Koreans as enemies.”

Kim, who is waiting for a new hearing, said North Koreans face biases in South Korea.

“There is a lot of discrimination in employment. We were bullied because we spoke with a different accent,” said Kim, who was joined in Canada earlier this year by her husband, Jae Sung Kim, 51. “We were under constant surveillance because South Koreans think we are all spies.”

Although 79 per cent of North Korean claimants were granted asylum in Canada last year, the acceptance rate dropped to just 14 per cent in the first three quarters of 2013.

Vanessa Wright, a nurse practitioner at Women’s College Hospital, said Ottawa’s changed attitude toward North Korean refugees is also reflected in the federal health coverage for the group.

A pregnant woman from North Korea who is still waiting for a refugee hearing had her interim federal health coverage stripped in November, said Wright, because immigration officials deemed her a South Korean national. She gave birth at Sunnybrook hospital and is now $3,000 in debt.

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“This is outrageous,” said Wright. “It just shows the mean-spiritedness of the government.”

Over the past year, Ottawa has designated 35 countries as “safe” for refugees and added South Korea to the list in May. It said it has no plan to put the “safe country” label on North Korea.

“Designated countries of origin are countries that respect human rights, offer state protection, and do not normally produce refugees,” said Immigration’s Lesage. “North Korea does not meet any requirement for such a designation.”

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