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| 20 N.Korean Defectors Arrive from Laos | |
| 2013-06-19 | |
| Twenty North Korean defectors have recently arrived in Seoul after weeks under the protection of the South Korean Embassy in Laos. They boarded in Vientiane and arrived safely, a diplomatic source said Monday. Once they have been questioned they will be resettled here. Their safe arrival follows the high-profile repatriation from Laos to North Korea on May 27 of seven teenage defectors who had reportedly been coerced by North Korean agents while the South Korean Embassy twiddled its thumbs. Following an outcry here, South Korea on June 4 moved 18 other defectors from a safe house in Vientiane to the embassy compound. It also sheltered two more defectors who arrived in Laos later. The group, which includes children, disabled people, cancer patients and the elderly, lived together in three rooms of a temporary building in the embassy compound. All are reportedly in good health. Defectors are normally interviewed by Lao authorities to establish whether they want to go to South Korea, but until May 20 the 20 defectors had not been questioned, raising fears that the established escape route through Laos would be closed following the closure of a similar route through Vietnam. The worry was that the North Korean regime had in some way leaned on its fellow communist regime in the underdeveloped Southeast Asian country, which used to quietly let North Korean defectors go to South Korea. Lawmaker Kim Jae-won of the ruling Saenuri Party later went to Laos to ask for cooperation.
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| Posted by:Steve White |