China has rejected recommendations that it protect North Korean refugees and refrain from forcibly repatriating them, following a comprehensive U.N. review of Beijing’s human rights record.

The recommendations by South Korea and the Czech Republic were part of China’s ​​Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which concluded last Thursday.

The U.N. carries out UPRs every four to five years to examine member states’ human rights records, and as part of the examination, U.N. bodies, other nations and civil society groups can make recommendations to the state under review.

The Czech Republic called on China to “refrain from the forcible repatriation of North