Chinese guards dragged a North Korean asylum-seeker away from a South Korean visa office yesterday after kicking and knocking down diplomats who tried to stop them.
One diplomat was punched in the mouth in the scuffle outside the gate of the compound where the man and his son had sought refuge, according to witnesses.
The son remained inside the office, bringing to 18 the number of North Koreans holed up in South Korean diplomatic missions in Beijing, a South Korean official said.
The embassy protested the incident as a violation of international law and asked China to return the man, South Korea's national news agency Yonhap reported. South Korea's Foreign Ministry in Seoul could not confirm that.
Dozens of North Koreans fleeing famine and repression have sought refuge at US, Japanese and other foreign diplomatic offices in China. Two North Koreans have been in the Canadian Embassy since Saturday.
China has demanded that South Korea hand over the North Koreans in its offices. Seoul says it will do so only if Beijing promises they can leave the country.
By treaty, diplomatic offices are considered foreign territory that Chinese authorities aren't supposed to enter without permission.
China is obliged by treaty with its North Korean ally to send home refugees, but has let asylum-seekers leave in cases that become public.
Authorities have tried to deter asylum bids by erecting barbed wire around embassies and consulates and expanding the force of guards -- some armed with machine guns -- posted outside.
Beijing has also signalled a hardening in its attitude, demanding that embassies hand over to police any other asylum-seekers.
The latest asylum bid began when the father and son entered the visa office a few blocks from Seoul's embassy in Beijing yesterday morning, the South Korean official said.
Chinese guards entered and took the man outside, where he was held temporarily, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Yonhap identified the man only by his surname, Won, and said he was in his mid-50s.
About a half-dozen South Korean diplomats tried to block police by forming a line outside a guard post where the man was held, said a Yonhap reporter who witnessed the incident.
But about a dozen Beijing municipal police who arrived by van forced their way into the guardhouse, kicking, punching and knocking down diplomats, said the reporter, Lee Sang-min.
A videotape shot by a journalist for South Korean broadcaster MBC shows police grabbing the man by his arms and legs, dragging him to the van and driving him away.
"The Chinese police took him away. We don't know to where," said the South Korean official.
Chinese authorities ordered foreign broadcasters not to transmit footage of the scuffle. When one television agency began sending its footage to its headquarters via the satellite service of state-run China Central Television, government technicians cut off the feed.
Also yesterday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said it had issued a note to foreign diplomatic missions demanding that they hand over to Chinese police people who have sought refuge in their offices.
Liu denied that the letter indicated any change in policy.
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