North Korea has faded from the headlines over the last few weeks after the country agreed to let international inspectors start dismantling its nuclear capacity.
But the economy of the isolated state remains dire and its state-run food distribution system is near collapse.
One result has been a steady flow of people braving extraordinary dangers to try and leave the country, many into China.
But China sends a lot of the refugees back, often to a horrendous fate.
Peter Beck is executive director of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. He is in Australia as a guest of the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
He says there are several human right issues the United States is trying to address.
"One is we have a leverage point with China, with the Olympics coming, and that is the treatment of North Koreans who are crossing into China," he said.
"There are tens of thousands of North Koreans in China, many just there temporarily, but some are trying to leave, but they live in fear of being caught by Chinese authorities. And the Chinese Government is really pretty nasty to these people."
He says many of the refugees are already suffering by the time they get to China.
"They're typically hungry, not necessarily starving, but they're typically malnourished," he said.
"They are looking often for jobs. Even if they're not malnourished, they are underemployed, and so they're looking for food and for economic opportunity in China.
"But most are forced to go illegally, which means they have to work illegally. They're paid minimally and they're exploited by their Chinese employers and the women are often forced to sell themselves, either for prostitution, or as brides to unwed Chinese farmers."
Mr Beck says many of the refugees get sent back to North Korea.
"Local authorities do sometimes tend to turn a blind eye. The people we've interviewed have told us that they think the local authorities know that they're there and they're turning a blind eye to it," he said.
"But if they are just newly showing up and they're detected or they're reported by their neighbours, then they will be rounded up and sometimes beaten and in most cases sent back to North Korea."
Punishment
Mr Beck says the refugees who are taken back to North Korea face a horrible fate.
"In our latest survey, about one third of the women we interviewed had been sent back to North Korea and got out again, and the punishment ranges from several days to weeks or months or even years in prison," he said.
"Naturally the people that we meet are staying shorter periods of time, and they're often escaping from their incarceration in North Korea to get back into China, because they know that in some cases that they'll be lucky to survive the punishment that they're facing in North Korea.
"Leaving for food itself is a relatively light punishment, but if you're caught, for example, engaging in prostitution, or if you have married a Chinese man, or if you are meeting with South Korean missionaries and discovering God, all of those things are punishable by longer prison sentences."
Mr Beck says countries like Australia have a responsibility to stand up for the rights of the refugees.
"This is a long-term issue that's not going to go away in a few weeks, and countries like Australia have a very important role to play," he said.
"Australia has a relationship with North Korea. The Australian Ambassador in Seoul regularly visits the north, and to my great envy, raises the full spectrum of issues with North Korea, from human rights to humanitarian assistance, to development assistance and technical cooperation.
"And frankly the US and South Korea and China don't have this kind of dialogue with North Korea.
"This is partly because Australia's not threatening to North Korea, that they can engage fully with Australia and not worry about any repercussions from that.
"But I hope at a minimum that it sends a positive message to North Korea that there are benefits from engagement, and that I think Australians can hold their head high that the Government is really trying to talk about all issues with them." © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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