Four refugees, believed NKorean, at Danish embassy in Vietnam
HANOI - Four people believed to be North Koreans have sought refuge in the Danish embassy in Vietnam, a diplomat said Wednesday, in what activists called an apparent bid for asylum.
"Three women and one man entered the compound of the Danish embassy this morning," the Danish diplomat told AFP. "They crawled over the gate."
"We think they're from North Korea, but we cannot confirm it," the diplomat added, saying that embassy officials were in the process of confirming their nationality.
In Seoul, the activist group Didimdol said the four people were indeed North Korean, and that they should be allowed to resettle in South Korea.
"They are all safe," said group representative Oh Yong-Eun, declining to elaborate on how they had reached Hanoi.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans, fleeing hunger or repression in the North, have crossed the border into China in recent years.
China has an agreement with its ally North Korea to repatriate those it catches as economic migrants, a policy strongly criticised by refugee aid groups.
The refugees often travel on to Mongolia or other Southeast Asian countries in hopes of winning eventual resettlement in South Korea.
Agence France Presse - july 11, 2007.
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