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36 N. Korean Refugees Reach S. Korea NewsMax WiresINCHEON, South Korea -- Thirty-six North Korean refugees who had holed up in a German government school and a South Korean consulate in China arrived in South Korea Thursday for resettlement. It was the largest one-day group defection to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The North Koreans arrived in two groups at Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. A group of 15 people, who on Sept. 3 had sought asylum in a German embassy school in Beijing after scrambling over a wall surrounding it, arrived in South Korea via Singapore. An hour earlier, a group of 21 North Koreans who sought refuge at the South Korean embassy in the Chinese capital arrived from Manila. They included two families with two infants and one boy. "I am happy to arrive here," a 38-year-old man, whose family name is Son, told journalists upon arriving at the airport. "I left the North because I have been fed up with its [communis]) system," he said, holding his baby in his arms. The two groups were immediately taken away by government intelligence officials for questioning. Intelligence officials did not identify the asylum seekers for fear their families in North Korea may face retaliation. Seoul's Unification Ministry said it was the largest one-day arrival of North Korean asylum seekers. A total of 729 North Koreans have defected to South Korea so far this year. A month ago, 21 North Koreans arrived in South Korea after two days at sea aboard a small fishing boat. Most North Korean asylum seekers travel to South Korea by way of China, which shares a long land border with North Korea, because the inter-Korean land border is the world's most heavily armed boundaries. Intelligence officials said about 10 more North Koreans were still in the South Korean diplomatic compound in the Chinese capital awaiting Beijing's permission to leave China. Up to 300,000 North Koreans are believed to be hiding in China in hopes of reaching South Korea for resettlement. China has rejected appeals to treat the North Koreans as refugees, saying they are illegal economic migrants, but international pressure has forced China to allow some to leave the country for South Korea. As part of efforts to deter would-be refugees, Chinese authorities have launched a crackdown on North Korean escapees and ringed Western embassies in Beijing with barbed wire. Seven North Koreans were detained last month after they attempted to demonstrate at Beijing's Foreign Ministry seeking refugee status. The South Korean government has maintained a low profile about the stream of North Korean refugees, in an apparent bid to avoid friction with China. But it has been facing growing demands by human right groups to seek stronger diplomatic measures to rescue the North Korean asylum seekers stranded in China. "The government is urged to raise the refugee issue as a formal diplomatic agenda during talks with China for a fundamental resolution to their plight," said Park Su-gil, a Kyunghee University professor. Copyright 2002 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
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