The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on human rights violations in North Korea, released last month, revealed that China’s current policy of repatriation of North Korean citizens does, in fact, violate international laws.

The question, now, for North Korean human rights activists is what to do about China’s intransigence.

Many experts on the subject of North Korean refugees are not optimistic about the impact the COI Report will have on China’s policies toward repatriation of North Korean refugees, but most agree that it is an important first step towards some kind of change.

Markus Bell, a doctoral candidate at