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Two Asylum-Seeking Children Were Released

Posted October. 01, 2004 21:53,   

한국어

Two girls from a group of nine North Korean defectors who sought asylum in an American school in Shanghai on September 27 were released after they were handed over to Chinese police.

“In accordance with humanitarian practice, the Chinese police freed two girls in advance, who are both under 15 years of age,” a Korean consulate official in Shanghai said on Friday. “They are staying at an unknown location under protection of the Chinese authorities, and hopefully they will be able to seek asylum in a third nation when China’s one-week holiday (China’s Foundation Day) ends,” he revealed.

The official said, “The release of two children was only possible because of their age. However, it is hard to predict the future of the other seven defectors.” He added, “Beijing is dealing with 44 North Korean refugees who made it into the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, and this will serve as a precedent for the future of the seven defectors.”

“It is known that the American Consul-General in Shanghai consulted with Chinese authorities in order to secure the safety of these nine North Koreans,” another source said, adding, “Those Korean nationals chose a private school rather than foreign missions to seek asylum. Thus, American authorities were not able to protect them at the time of incident, but now they are trying to secure their safety.”

Meanwhile, the Canadian Embassy in Beijing announced on Friday that they would help the 44 North Korean defectors seek asylum in their desired places in accordance with humanitarian practice, rejecting the Chinese government’s call to hand the asylum seekers over.

“The case is similar to previous asylum-seeking incidents. It only involves a greater number of refugees,” said Joseph Caron, Canadian Ambassador to China, who also assured, “We will follow a precedent of the previous incidents as part of humanitarian efforts.”

The Canadian government confirmed its decision to let the refugees seek asylum in their desired places following a precedent. Canadian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Kimberly Phillips said, “We are negotiating with Beijing to deal with the incident according to a precedent. The defectors will temporarily stay at the embassy.”



Yoo-Seong Hwang yshwang@donga.com