Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise the murder of the Korean-Chinese pastor Han Choong Yeol on 30 April 2016 in China with his Chinese counterpart; and if he will request that his Chinese counterpart investigate whether the North Korean security services were involved in that murder.

I have no plans to raise this case with the Chinese Government. We have a regular dialogue with the Chinese about the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), which covers the effective implementation of UN sanctions to prevent North Korea from developing nuclear weapons, and encouraging China to confront human rights violations by the North Korean regime, most notably the important principle of non-refoulement. I raised both points with Chinese Vice Minister Chen Fengxiang in December.