FM express concerns on smuggling of North Koreans

The Foreign Ministry expressed concern on Wednesday over the increasing number of North Koreans entering Thailand and criticised local and foreign nongovernmental organisations for supporting them.

The ministry's deputy spokesman Kittikhun Chartprasert said this support had increased the burden on Thai authorities.

He was speaking after police rounded up 59 North Koreans on Tuesday in Pathum Thani province. They were reportedly hoping to sneak into the South Korea Embassy in Bangkok to seek asylum and resettlement.

Police said they will hold the North Koreans for questioning before sending them to court to face charges of illegal entry - and probably deportation.

The group of 59 included 10 children under 13 years of age.

The dissidents said they had entered Thailand via China and Laos.

Kittikhun said Thailand had become a popular transit route for North Koreans who want asylum in a third country - usually South Korea.

"North Koreans are managing to slip into Thailand with support from a network of domestic and foreign NGOs," the spokesman said.

by Nuntida Puangthong

The Nation

Arrested north Korean defectors will resettle in South Korea

North Korean defectors arrested in Pathum Thani recently will be sent for resettlement in South Korea, immigration police and the United Nations refugee agency said Thursday.

"The North Koreans have been transferred to the immigration detention centre to be processed to go to South Korea if it is their wish," UNHCR spokeswomen Kitty McKinsey told Agence France Presse.

The defectors, mostly women and children, were discovered Tuesday after they made the long trek across China and through Laos to enter Thailand.

"They will be deported to a third country because normally North Korean defectors don't want to go back to their home country," said Suwat Thamrongsrisukul, Bangkok's immigration police chief.

He did not give a date for the deportation of the 59 North Koreans.

Police Major General Praphan Panikom said Wednesday that the migrants had been charged with illegal entry and sentenced to six months in prison, but said the court had ordered them to be handed over to immigration police instead.

Previous groups of North Korean defectors have received similar sentences, but they usually end up being accepted by South Korea rather than being sent home.

The Nation