Determining Refugee Status for North Korean Escapees under International and Domestic Laws

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This article asks how the Refugee Convention applies to North Korean escapees, specifically whether North Koreans who leave their country without government permission qualify as refugees in the first instance, and whether refugee status is negated by the fact that the South Korean Constitution confers South Korean nationality to anyone born on the Korean Peninsula, which thus gives dual nationality to North Koreans. This article addresses how states and other actors interpret the Refugee Convention in handling North Koreans settling or seeking asylum in various jurisdictions and probes how the availability of South Korean dual nationality can complicate the determination of refugee status for North Koreans globally.