Nine North Korean refugees were arrested in China in October and deported, even after they requested help from South Korean diplomats, officials said yesterday.
The nine, relatives of South Korean prisoners of war, were deported from the Chinese northeast border city of Shenyang, and many were placed in detention centers in the Stalinist state as punishment, officials have told a news magazine.
The refugees had earlier fled across the border to Shenyang and sought assistance from the diplomats to defect to South Korea, the Monthly Chosun magazine reported.
The diplomats took the nine, aged between 20 and 70, to a hotel where they were arrested the next morning after the manager tipped off Chinese police.
The refugees are relatives of three South Korean prisoners of war who settled in the North after the Korean War of 1950-1953.
The South Korean foreign ministry yesterday expressed "deep regret" at the incident, vowing to do its utmost to help such prisoners of war return to the South with their North Korean children and wives.
The revelations, initially reported by a local newspaper, were a fresh embarrassment to the ministry that issued a similar apology two weeks ago after one of its consular offices in China mishandled a call for help from a South Korean abductee who fled the North after 31 years.
"We think it is very regrettable" that the defectors could not come to South Korea, the ministry said in a statement.
China does not recognize fleeing North Koreans as refugees and is required to send them back to their impoverished homeland under a treaty with Pyongyang.
However, Beijing has allowed defectors to leave the country if they take refuge at foreign diplomatic missions or their cases draw media attention in an apparent attempt to avoid international criticism.
The same South Korean consulate caused public uproar earlier this month after revelations that one of its officials spoke angrily to an elderly South Korean abductee in a phone call seeking the office's help after he fled the North after 31 years.
The consular official allegedly pressed the abductee, Choi Wook-il, to explain how he found his mobile phone number, without trying to help him, during the phone conversation last month.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS