A North Korean woman was allowed to fly to South Korea yesterday to seek political asylum, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
The woman, Park Young-shil, 32, took a flight from CKS airport yesterday afternoon to Inchon.
"We respect her intention to seek political asylum in South Korea," a source at the ministry, who declined to be named, said.
"The [South] Korean government has formally requested the ministry to help her make a transfer in Taiwan to facilitate her move to seek political asylum in [South] Korea," the ministry said in a press release yesterday afternoon.
The ministry has worked with the Korean Mission in Taipei, the de facto South Korean embassy, during the past few days in handling Park's move to seek political asylum in Seoul.
Park was carried by Basic Spirit, a Panama-registered cargo ship, to Kaohsiung on Wednesday after she was rescued by the ship on July 13 at sea near Qinhuang island in Hebei Province, China.
Officials from the Korean Mission visited the woman on Wednesday in a move to help clarify her identity and her intentions, officials said.
The woman fled North Korea and reached Jilin Province in May 2001 before moving to work in a Korean restaurant in Hebei Province, the ministry said.
"She learned from TV reports that she would be able to make her way to South Korea if she sought political asylum in another country," the ministry said in the press release.
"So she jumped into the sea near Qinhuang island on July 13 and was then saved by the Panama-registered cargo ship while drifting on the water," the statement said.
The ministry's investigative report on Park's case said she was in good health before leaving for South Korea.
Officials at the Korean Mission were not available for comment.
Officials from both sides directly handling the case kept a low profile as some dubbed the issue as "highly sensitive."
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