North Korean asylum seekers to leave after weekend stay

MANILA, Philippines -- Twenty-five North Koreans who were flown to the Philippines after seeking refuge in the Spanish Embassy in Beijing will depart for South Korea today, officials said.

The asylum seekers rushed past guards at the embassy in China on Thursday, threatening to commit suicide if sent back to impoverished communist North Korea.

China, walking a diplomatic tightrope, moved quickly and sent them to the Philippines on Friday.

Beijing risked provoking international outrage by sending the men, women and children back to likely punishment in North Korea. But the Chinese government also wanted to avoid angering North Korea, its neighbor and longtime ally.

The North Korean asylum seekers were allowed to stay in Manila for three days to give South Korea time to prepare for their arrival, said Victorian Lecaros, a spokesman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs.

It is the second time in less than a year that the Philippine government has allowed North Korean asylum-seekers to pass through the country on their way to South Korea.

Last June, a family of seven sought refuge in a U.N. office in Beijing. After four days, they were allowed to leave for South Korea via a circuitous route that took them to Singapore and the Philippines before they landed in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Lecaros warned, however, that "we ought not to interpret this incident as a precedent."