As many as 19 people believed to be North Korean asylum seekers tried to climb a fence and enter a South Korean consulate in Beijing yesterday, but only three succeeded, a diplomat and a news report said.
Some of the rest were taken away by Chinese guards while others fled the scene, an Asian diplomat in Beijing and South Korea's Yonhap News Agency said.
It wasn't clear how many were caught by police.
Yonhap said 18 North Koreans were involved, while the diplomat, who asked not to be further identified, put the number at 19.
The people scuffled with Chinese guards as they tried to climb a fence outside the consulate, Yonhap said.
Darkness
South Korean television showed footage of the North Koreans climbing the fence in the pre-dawn darkness.
Once inside the compound, the three North Koreans unfurled a South Korean flag and shouted, "Let us live!"
The three people who entered the consulate building were two women and one child, Yonhap said.
It said they asked to go to South Korea.
The incident came three days after 29 North Korean asylum seekers entered a South Korean school in Beijing.
Such asylum bids have become common in China, with North Koreans who are fleeing famine and repression in their communist nation rushing into embassies, schools and other foreign facilities.
Chinese officials have allowed many of the asylum seekers to leave the country for South Korea.
Last year, the number of defectors arriving in the South reached 1,285, up from 1,140 in 2002 and 583 in 2001.
Surging
The number of large groups of North Koreans seeking asylum has been surging in recent months.
Last month, a group of 44 North Koreans scaled a spiked fence to enter the Canadian embassy in the largest known asylum bid.
They were still in the embassy on Friday and an embassy spokesman wasn't available for comment yesterday.
Two weeks ago, 20 North Koreans entered the same South Korean consulate building by scaling fences and crawling under barbed wire.
In August, another 29 North Koreans scaled a wall to get into a Japanese school.
The Japanese government hasn't released any information on their status.
More than 5,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War, which ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty.
The Koreas were divided in 1945. Their border remains sealed and guarded by nearly 2 million troops on both sides.
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