A North Korean refugee claimant has had his application rejected, even though Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board agrees he would likely face execution if he returned home.

Song Dae Ri worked as North Korean trade official in Beijing for years before defecting to Canada with his wife and son in 2001.

His wife was lured home in 2002 by her parents and executed by the North Koreans shortly after.

The Refugee Board has now issued a removal order for Ri, the thought of which terrifies him.

"I'm going to die.... I feel defeated at this point... my only sin is that my birthplace is North Korea," he told CTV News.

IRB member Bonnie Milliner admits Ri would likely be put to death if returned home. But she says he's not "deserving of Canada's protection'' because he was a high ranking member of the North Korean government and was complicit in crimes against humanity.

However, Canada's War Crimes Unit disagrees. It assured the board in writing that Ri was "not a person of interest to them'' and there was no evidence he had committed crimes against humanity.

In her decision, written in September 2003, Milliner questioned why Ri failed to dissociate himself from government abuses at the first available opportunity, and defected only when he feared his own life was in danger.

"While (Ri) may not have personally committed any atrocities, I believe that on a balance of probabilities he was aware of the North Korean government's excesses... and waited 10 years (to leave)," she concluded.

In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Ri explained that he and his colleagues lived under a complicated surveillance system in Beijing and escape would have been difficult. He says he was a low-level trade official who helped buy wheat for his country, not a high-ranking diplomat.

He told CTV that he expected Canada to welcome him with open arms.

"I thought that Canada was truly a democratic country and believed I would be received as a refugee claimant."

The IRB has allowed Ri's six-year-old son, Chang-Il, to remain in Canada, because as the son of a dissident, he would face persecution. But the boy would have no parents here.

The local South Korean community in Toronto has taken up Ri's cause. Several thousand people, including the publisher of the Korean Times Daily, have written letters of support and signed petitions imploring the Canadian government to allow Ri to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

Ri says he fears North Korean agents may attempt to track him down in Canada and assassinate him. That is why he lives in seclusion in Toronto and doesn't want his picture published.

In the past seven years, 35 North Koreans have applied for refugee status in Canada; just two have been granted asylum.