A group of 18 top U.N. human rights experts called on China to refrain from forcibly repatriating North Koreans on Tuesday, warning that some returnees could even be put to death.

The statement comes on the heels of a South Korean media report that some 600 North Koreans in China were sent back to the DPRK in trucks. 

“We are alarmed by reports we have received that China has forcibly repatriated hundreds of escapees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), the vast majority of whom are women, despite appeals repeatedly made by multiple international human rights bodies to