Chinese police detained 65 North Korean asylum-seekers in Beijing, South Korean activists said yesterday, accusing China of carrying out "hardline measures" to round up refugees from its ally North Korea.
Two South Korean human-rights activists were also detained in the raid on Tuesday on two houses in the Chinese capital's east side, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported.
The detentions came amid a surge in large-scale asylum bids in recent weeks. Scores of North Koreans are in the Canadian and South Korean embassies and other foreign facilities in Beijing, waiting for permission to leave for Seoul.
A woman who answered the phone at the Beijing police spokes-man's office wouldn't confirm the reports. But a Beijing newspaper said police detained more than 60 "illegal immigrants" on Tuesday as they prepared to enter the South Korean Consulate.
"This move shows that the Chinese government has begun implementing its hardline measures and started a wide-scale roundup operation against people who have fled North Korea," said a statement by the Seoul-based Civil Coalition for Human Rights of the Kidnapped and Defectors from North Korea.
Another Seoul-based group, the Democracy Network Against North Korean Gulag, said the activists were two of its members. It said they were born in North Korea but escaped to the South. The group wouldn't give their names.
China on Tuesday appealed to foreign embassies to stop giving refuge to North Koreans, saying they were economic migrants led by activists with "ulterior motives."
Thousands of North Koreans fleeing famine and repression have been allowed to leave for South Korea over the past three years after seeking refuge in embassies and other foreign offices in China.
But China still tries to block asylum attempts and has detained scores of people.
"We hope these embassies will refrain from providing refuge to those illegal immigrants," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue (
She complained that asylum bids are organized by "so-called religious and humanitarian organizations and individuals with ulterior motives."
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