Four North Korean defectors who made a rare escape to Japan in a wooden boat were moved to an immigration facility near Tokyo, reports said yesterday, bringing the family a step closer to possible freedom in South Korea.
The group — a mother, father and their two adult sons — arrived in northern Japan on Saturday after a six-day voyage in the roofless boat, capturing nationwide headlines in a country long at odds with communist North Korea over its weapons programs and human rights record.
It is the first time in two decades that North Korean defectors made it to Japan by boat.
The family told police investigators they fled to escape extreme poverty, and requested asylum in South Korea.
The four were taken yesterday from protective custody in a police station in the northern city of Goshogawara to an immigration facility in Ushiku, northeast of Tokyo, by helicopter, Kyodo News agency said, citing unidentified officials.
Public broadcaster NHK ran a similar report.
Katsumi Takaya, a Goshogawara police officer, confirmed the four had left for an airport but refused to say where they were going, citing security concerns.
The Japanese government plans to allow the four to leave for South Korea and will make arrangements with South Korean officials for their departure, NHK said.
Seoul has indicated it will accept them.
Japan's Immigration Bureau could not immediately comment on the reports. Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the government's top spokesman, also refused to comment, citing safety reasons.
The North Koreans left North Korea's northeastern port of Chongjin last Sunday in a 7.3m-long wooden boat, planning to head directly to South Korea. But they changed their route and headed across the Sea of Japan to Japan, fearing tight security near the border between the two Koreas.
Thousands of North Koreans have fled their isolated homeland to escape poverty and political oppression in recent years, often by land through China and Southeast Asia.
Over 10,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953. More than 130 people who have fled North Korea through third countries are currently in Japan.
In 1987, 11 crew members of a North Korean ship arrived at a port in western Japan and later defected to South Korea via Taiwan.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
RSS