Politic-Economic-Society-Tech

N. Korean Refugees Reunited in Seoul

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Seven North Koreans began their new lives in South Korea with a reunion — with three relatives who had fled their communist homeland ahead of them, officials said Sunday. 

The seven — a couple, their two children, two grandparents and a nephew — landed in South Korea on Saturday, ending a 2 1/2 -year odyssey that took them through China and then briefly to Singapore and the Philippines. 

They were immediately reunited with three relatives who earlier made their way to South Korea through an unspecified third country, arriving shortly before the rest of the group, officials at the National Intelligence Service said. 

Among them was the 20-year-old brother of the teen whose illustrated diary published last year in South Korea shed light on life under the North's communist regime. 

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees had called the 16-year-old's account — images of handcuffed citizens and a stick figure eating a rat — ``compelling evidence'' that the family could face punishment if returned to North Korea. 

South Korean officials said they withheld news of the first group's defection until after the rest of the family had arrived for security reasons. 

The number of North Koreans seeking asylum in South Korea has shot up in recent years, rising from 71 in 1998 to 312 in last year. There have been 218 such cases so far this year. 

The seven North Koreans spent their first night in South Korea at a ``safe house'' awaiting debriefing on their ordeal, officials said. 

``All are in good shape,'' said an official from the intelligence service. ``All went to bed early probably because they were tried after a long, grueling journey.'' 

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the North Koreans will undergo several days of debriefing and then will undergo at least a month of orientation to help them assimilate into South Korean society. 

The orientation will teach them how South Korea's capitalist society works and about daily life, including how to use the subway, public phones and ATMs. 

The refugees will be given South Korean citizenship, a subsidized rental apartment and $117,000 cash to help them settle in, state-run KBS-TV said. 

The group stormed into the UNHCR's Beijing office Tuesday, refusing to leave until granted passage to South Korea. They said they had been living secretly in northeastern China since 1999, and feared they would be persecuted if returned to North Korea. 

Beijing is required by a treaty with communist ally Pyongyang to return all North Korean escapees. But Beijing gave the family rare clearance Friday to leave for a third country. 

The family flew from Beijing to Singapore and Manila before finally heading to Seoul. 

China may be trying to avoid international outrage in the weeks before the International Olympic Committee decides on who will host the 2008 Olympics. Beijing is considered a leading contender. 

Separated since the end of World War II, the Koreas fought a three-year war in the early 1950s. 


source: The Associated Press, 01 Jul 2001