CHINA: TWO NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS HAVE ENTERED THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY COMPOUND SEEKING ASYLUM

Record ID: 338144

  • Title: CHINA: TWO NORTH KOREAN DEFECTORS HAVE ENTERED THE UNITED STATES EMBASSY COMPOUND SEEKING ASYLUM
  • Date: 28th April 2002
  • Summary: (U2) BEIJING, CHINA (APRIL 27, 2002) (REUTERS) 1. SLV ROAD LEADING TO UNITED STATES EMBASSY COMPOUND IN BEIJING; SLV EMBASSY BUILDING/U.S. FLAG/POLICE VAN/SECURITY (4 SHOTS) 0.20 2. SLV SECOND EMBASSY COMPOUND (USIS BUILDING) AND POLICEMAN WALKING OVER TO BLOCK CAMERA (3 SHOTS) 0.40 (U2) BEIJING, CHINA (APRIL 26, 2002) (REUTERS) 3.
  • Embargoed: 13th May 2002 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEIJING, CHINA
  • Country: China
  • Reuters ID: LVAD60OD5XWWFF9KGNWLIVL71AGX
  • Story Text: Two North Koreans seeking asylum have entered the U.S.

    Embassy compound in Beijing, focusing attention on a growing
    number of North Koreans desperate to flee their homeland who
    are using foreign embassies in Beijing as a temporary
    sanctuary.

    The United States on Saturday (April 27, 2002) confirmed
    that two people had entered the embassy compound on Friday and
    said they had already been accepted for resettlement in a
    third country.

    Officials did not identify the third country, but said it
    was not the United States.

    A U.S. embassy spokesman said the two North Koreans were
    not government or other prominent officials.

    Security throughout Beijing's embassy district remained
    tight on Saturday.

    The defections came a day after a North Korean man
    scrambled over a two-metre wall (6.5 foot) wall into the
    German embassy in Beijing seeking asylum, and on the eve of
    talks between Red Cross officials from North Korea and Japan
    in Beijing.

    The North Korean at the German Embassy remained inside the
    embassy compound as of Saturday, but diplomatic sources said
    he was expected to leave for Manila, and thence to South
    Korea, later in the day.

    The embassy break-ins put China in an awkward position,
    torn between Communist ally North Korea, economic partner
    South Korea and the U.N. refugee agency, which wants China to
    recognise North Korean asylum seekers as refugees.

    Last month, 25 North Koreans dashed into the Spanish
    embassy in Beijing seeking political asylum. They were later
    allowed to go to South Korea via the Philippines, a route
    that allowed China to avoid handing them directly to the South.

    Aid groups say between 100,000 and 300,000 North Koreans
    have fled to northeastern China in recent years to escape
    political repression and famine in which hundreds of thousands
    have died.

    Beijing responded to the mass defection at the Spanish
    embassy with a sweeping crackdown, in which North Korean
    security agents were allowed to cross into Chinese territory
    to round up escapees.

    There was no comment from North Korean Red Cross officials
    arriving in Beijing on Saturday ahead of the first talks in
    two years with their Japanese counterparts.

    Monday's Red Cross talks are expected to focus on missing
    Japanese citizens who are believed to be in North Korea, and
    other humanitarian issues.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register