Radio Free Asia says a U.S. appeals court has granted refugee status to an ethnic Korean-Chinese who had been punished in China for helping a North Korean defector escape.

According to the Washington-based broadcaster, a U.S. appeals court overturned a former ruling that the ethnic Korean identified as Ri, should not be granted refugee status.

Ri was arrested and held in a China labor camp in 2002 for helping a North Korean defector but later escaped from the camp and entered the U.S. through South Korea and Canada, applying for refugee status in 2003.

The U.S. government had originally rejected the request, explaining that China enforced the punishment upon Ri for the criminal act of providing dwelling and money for an illegal entrant.

But an appellate court said Ri should be granted refugee status, saying that Ri moved in accordance with the U.S.’s policy of refugee acceptance plans.