A group of Hong Kong-based activists are working to change China’s mind on the forced repatriation of North Korean defectors.

“When you take a look closely, the North Korean defector issue has a close relationship with Hong Kong and China,” said Owen Lau, a founding member of North Korean Defectors Concern, the first such group in Hong Kong.

Lau elaborated that in the 1950s-70s China was suffering from extreme poverty, meaning that many escaped to Hong Kong.

“Even some Chinese people escaped to North Korea at that time,” he said.

Lau, a secondary school teacher in Hong Kong, paid little