400+ N Koreans on hunger strike
2007-04-25 17:31
Kwang-Tae Kim
Bangkok - More than 400 North Korean defectors being held in a Thai immigration facility have launched a hunger strike, demanding they be sent to South Korea, said Thai police and an activist group on Wednesday.
Thai immigration police officer Pricha Daengsirirat confirmed that the asylum seekers in the detention centre in Bangkok launched a hunger strike on Wednesday morning, adding that South Korean diplomats came to help negotiate with them.
The North Koreans - 100 men and 314 women - have been staying in the cramped detention centre for about three months and are waiting to leave for South Korea, said Lee Ho-taeg, an official of a group in South Korea that aids North Korean asylum seekers.
North Koreans have been arriving in Thailand and usually staying for about three months before being allowed to fly to South Korea, but "the flow has stopped", leading to the hunger strike, Lee said.
He said the strike had begun on Tuesday.
Three asylum seekers were taken to a hospital after collapsing when a Thai immigration official threatened to send them back to their homeland, said Lee, citing a phone conversation with a South Korean activist in Thailand.
'We have no problems'
The official told the defectors they could get to South Korea if they ended the hunger strike, but the refugees demanded to see their air tickets before complying, said Lee.
Pricha, however, said Thai authorities had nothing to do with the resettlement delays.
"We are happy to let them leave (Thailand) anytime. We have no problems," said Pricha.
A South Korean diplomat in Bangkok said moves were under way to bring the refugees to South Korea, noting that Thailand has never returned North Korean refugees to their home.
The diplomat asked not to be identified, citing policy.
Earlier on Wednesday, South Korean foreign minister Song Min-soon said his country was consulting with Thai authorities to resolve the issue.
Escaping 'hunger and oppression'
Separately, three young North Korean defectors who were arrested in Laos have been handed over to the South Korean Embassy there, Lee said. Song refused to confirm the information.
Thousands of North Koreans have fled their communist homeland to escape hunger and harsh political oppression in recent years, many taking a long and risky land journey through China to Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries on their way to asylum.
More than 10 000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953, most of them arriving in recent years.
Seoul has said it would accept any North Korean who wants to resettle in the South, but is concerned the rapid increase in arrivals could strain inter-Korean ties and complicate international efforts to resolve North Korea's nuclear programme.
- AP