North Korean asylum seekers leave China headed for South Korea

BEIJING -- Twenty-four North Korean asylum seekers left South Korean diplomatic compounds on Sunday bound for South Korea, ending a monthlong diplomatic standoff between Beijing and Seoul.

A Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman confirmed the group flew out of the country Sunday evening but would not say where they were headed.

Two other North Koreans holed up in the Canadian embassy also left China Sunday, embassy spokeswoman Jennifer May said. She declined to give other details.

Shin Jung-seung, a spokesman for the South Korean Foreign Ministry, said the North Koreans would fly to a third country before traveling on to South Korea. Previous North Korean asylum seekers have flown to the Philippines before continuing on to South Korea.

Shin said the asylum seekers included 21 North Koreans inside the embassy's visa office and two others who entered the main embassy compound several blocks away. A North Korean man who was dragged out of the visa office on June 13 by Chinese guards also would be allowed to leave, Shin said.

Strained relations

The standoff soured the usually friendly relations between Seoul and Beijing and placed China in the difficult position of trying to show sensitivity to international opinion while also discouraging future asylum bids.

China has a treaty with its North Korean ally requiring it to send refugees back. However, it has not done so in public cases, possibly for fear of provoking a backlash abroad.

China had demanded the asylum seekers be handed over and refused to publicly accept Seoul's precondition that it promise not to send them back to North Korea, where they face almost certain imprisonment and torture. South Korea faces domestic political pressure over the issue. Sentiments between the sides worsened after Chinese guards removed the North Korean man and police kicked and punched South Korean diplomats who tried to intervene.