China-activist detention China detains South Korean reverend for several hours

China detained a South Korean reverend for several hours in Beijing on Monday over his campaign to help North Korean defectors and jailed Chinese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo, a Christian aid group said Tuesday. Chinese police took custody of Soh Kyung-suk and 31 of his fellow South Korean reverends at 8 p.m. (Beijing time) as they waited in the Beijing airport to board a flight to Frankfurt, the group said. Police soon released all the reverends, except Soh who was held more than four hours before being allowed to join his team and leave for Germany on early Tuesday morning. Chinese police told the South Koreans that they detained Soh as he led the campaign to help North Korean defectors and Chinese dissident Liu, according to the group. The development was the latest sign of how far Beijing is willing to go to silence international opprobrium over its alleged dismal human rights policy. There were no immediate comments from foreign ministries in Seoul and Beijing. Soh traveled to Europe in 2008 and 2009 to raise international awareness of fleeing North Korean defectors. He plans to hold events near U.N. agencies and Chinese embassies in Europe to highlight the plight of North Korean defectors and try to stop Beijing's practice of sending the defectors back to the North. Tens of thousands of North Korean defectors are believed to be hiding in China, a major land route through which many North Koreans travel to Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries before resettling in South Korea. Still, China views North Korean refugees in its territory as economic migrants and has a policy of repatriating defectors to the North where they could face harsh punishment and even execution.