South Korea said yesterday it is willing to grant refuge to five people said to be North Korean asylum seekers who were detained by Chinese police at a Japanese consulate.
The statement by a South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman offered the country's powerful neighbors a way out of a stalemate over the five, who are said to want to go to the US.
"If their desire is to come to [South] Korea, there is no reason why we should refuse them," said Kim Euy-taek, a spokesman for the ministry in Seoul.
Japan said South Korea has told China of its offer, although the Foreign Ministry in Seoul would not confirm that. China's Foreign Ministry had no immediate comment.
"The South Korean government informed the Chinese government it would welcome the five people's immigration if they completed the appropriate procedures," said Yasuo Fukuda, the Japanese government's chief spokesman.
Also yesterday, foreign diplomats were negotiating with Chinese officials over the fate of North Koreans holed up in US and Canadian diplomatic offices.
Dozens of North Koreans fleeing famine and repression have been allowed to leave China in the past two months after seeking asylum at foreign embassies. All went to South Korea.
Yesterday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said an investigation had concluded that contrary to Chinese claims, Japanese officials did not give Chinese guards permission to remove the people from the consulate.
The probe found that Chinese "armed police entered without necessary agreement," Kawaguchi said in Tokyo. She repeated the Japanese government's demand for China to release the five.
"We will deal firmly and calmly based on the international law and from the humanitarian point of view, and we will do our best for early solutions through dialogue with China," Kawaguchi said.
It wasn't clear how South Korea's offer to take the five would affect the standoff. But China might decide it is less offensive to its North Korean allies to let refugees go to the South than to the US.
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