A North Korean woman, who was detained after a failed attempt to smuggle herself into the United States, was released into the custody of a guardian after asking for political asylum on May 8.

Chong-il Han, voluntary guardian of the 37-year-old defector, Soon-hi Kim, said that the woman, who was arrested April 6 at a US-Mexico border checkpoint near San Diego, will undergo initial screening by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) on June 4.

He said Kim applied for political asylum on the grounds that she was seeking freedom from oppression and to escape the famine that has ravaged North Korea for several years.

"We will protect her with the aid of an association of ethnic Korean residents in San Diego for the duration of the asylum-seeking process," he said.

Should the United States accept her application for asylum, she will be the first North Korean ever to be granted the official status in the country.

Born in Muan, North Hamgyong Province, Kim lived in hiding in the Chinese city of Yanbian for six years after defecting from the North in 1994 with her son, who was only two years old at the time.

She then traveled through Hong Kong, the Philippines and Mexico using a fake passport.

"We came to know about her through Korean lawyers of various non-profit human rights groups here who learned she was a North Korean national and volunteered to serve as a translator in her quest for asylum," said Han, who once served as deputy director of the association of Korean residents in San Diego. "I introduced my daughter to them, who serves as a court translator."

Kim majored in accounting at a junior college and worked as an elementary school teacher before escaping from North Korea, Han said.

"I was told that she decided to seek political asylum in the United States because people in Yanbian have a negative image of Koreans," he said.

Kim said, "I don’t yet really feel that I’m here. I heard a lot about the United States from ethnic Korean neighbors in Yanbian...But it breaks my heart when I think of my son who I had to leave there."