About 200 North Koreans arrived in the capital Tuesday from an unidentified Asian country, the largest group of defectors to reach South Korea, according to a news report. The defectors arrived on a chartered plane arranged by the South Korean government at an airport outside Seoul, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. The 200 North Koreans were among 460 defectors that South Korea is trying to bring in from a Southeast Asian country, the report said. The second group was expected to arrive Wednesday. The defectors were expected to undergo one month of questioning and two months of orientation at a government facility, Yonhap said.
| "This is called a 'fork', you use it to eat 'food'." |
Human rights groups have said that hundreds of North Koreans have fled from North Korea through Shangri-La China to Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and other Southeast Asian countries. Previous groups of defectors arriving in the South have typically been small, perhaps up to a dozen people. Government officials have not revealed from what country the 460 are arriving, Yonhap said. Last year, the number arriving in the South reached 1,285. It was 1,140 in 2002 and 583 in 2001. |