By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter


Eighteen North Koreans attempted to enter a South Korean consulate building in Beijing to seek asylum Monday, but only three succeeded, witnesses said.

Chinese guards caught some of the remaining 15 people who tried to flee the scene, they said. South Korea’s diplomatic mission in Beijing was working to determine how many people the Chinese guards apprehended.

The three who entered the consulate building consisted of two women and a child, diplomatic sources in Beijing said.

It was the second attempt in four days by North Koreans to enter South Korean facilities in Beijing. A group of 29 barged into a South Korean school in Beijing early Friday morning.

Two weeks ago, 20 other North Koreans also stormed into the South Korean Consulate in Beijing.

Currently, more than 130 North Koreans are believed to have taken refuge in the South Korean Embassy, awaiting China’s approval to leave the country. Other defectors seeking asylum in Beijing include 44 at the Canadian Embassy and 24 at a Japanese school, according to officials in Seoul.

The South Korean consulate office in Beijing is again considering a temporary suspension of its regular work, including issuance of visas, due to the surging number of asylum-seekers from North Korea. The consulate stopped issuing visas twice during December last year for similar reasons.

North Korean defectors have begun to flock into Beijing in earnest since South Korea airlifted 468 refugees from Vietnam in July, leading China to beef up its border security.

``Since late July, the Mongolia route to Southeast Asia has been blocked,’’ said Do Hui-yoon, a civic group leader who helps North Korean defectors. ``They have no other way but to gather in Beijing and look for chances.’’

International relief officials think the number of defectors from the Stalinist country will increase further in the future, encouraged by a new U.S. law aimed at improving human rights conditions in North Korea.

The legislation, signed into law by the U.S. president this month, authorizes the Washington government to spend up to $24 million (27 billion won) every year during the 2005-2008 period to help international groups that aid North Korean escapees.

Over 5,900 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, including 583 in 2001, 1,139 in 2002, 1,281 in 2003 and about 1,300 so far this year.

The National Intelligence Service, South Korea’s spy agency, recently said that the number of North Koreans coming to Seoul is expected to exceed 10,000 a year within a couple of years.

In previous cases, Beijing has allowed defectors to leave for a third country from which they can travel to the final destination of South Korea. But Beijing is showing signs of abandoning its humanitarian behavior.

Civic groups aiding North Korea say seven North Koreans who successfully entered a U.S. international school in Shanghai on Sept. 27 are still in the custody of the Chinese authorities and no clear reason had yet been given for their continued detention.

The increasing number of North Korean defectors is an embarrassment for Beijing, a close ally of Pyongyang. It appears concerned that the issue could ruin efforts to arrange a new round of six-way talks over the North’s nuclear programs, diplomatic experts in Seoul said.

By some accounts, around 200,000 North Koreans are living in hiding in China, having fled poverty and repression in their communist homeland. Most of them are eager to come to South Korea.

China refuses to recognize North Koreans as refugees, insisting they are temporarily staying in its territory to obtain food. A treaty with Pyongyang obliges Beijing to repatriate any North Korean caught staying in China illegally.

The Seoul government’s official position is to accept any North Korean defectors coming from third countries if they desire to come to South Korea.

Concerned about possible negative influence on inter-Korean relations, however, Seoul has been handling the thorny issue in a low-key manner, describing its approach as ``silent diplomacy.’’

im@koreatimes.co.kr