Police round up 175 North Koreans from a Bangkok house

South Korean called Wednesday for diplomatic consultations with Thailand on the fate of 175 North Korean refugees detained there.

Thai Police have arrested 175 North Koreans who illegally entered the country and were found hiding in an abandoned home in Bangkok, police said on Wednesday.

They are the largest group of the North Koreans rounded up in Thailand.

The group, comprising of 136 women and 39 men, was charged with illegal entry after failing to produce passports and visas, the head of Thai immigration police told AFP.

"They entered Thailand at a border point somewhere in the north and have been in the kingdom around two months so far," Lieutenant General Suwat Thamrongsrisakul said.

Since their arrest late Tuesday, they have been detained at the immigration office in downtown Bangkok, he said.

"The police charged the North Koreans with illegal entry, and they will be taken to court within 48 hours. After that they could be deported back home," he said.

"Police are also investigating the human smuggling gang who arranged the smuggling of these North Koreans into the country,'' Suwat said.

Meanwhile AFP quoted South Korea's Foreign Minister Ban Ki-Moon as saying in Seoul, "we are trying to sort out related details through our embassy in Thailand. The government will hold consultations with the Thai government before reviewing measures to be taken," Ban Ki-Moon said.

In Bangkok, Immigration police chief Songphol Wattanachai said 16 members of the group had been granted refugee status by the Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and are scheduled to leave Thailand for South Korea in a few days. It was not immediately clear whether they also would be charged with illegal entry.

Songphol said the North Koreans had entered Thailand in separate groups through the northern Thai province of Chiang Rai, and had been staying in the two-story house for the past two months.

An official at the North Korean embassy earlier said police had not informed them of the arrests.

"We don't have this kind of news or information. We have not been contacted by immigration, then we can not confirm about this," he said.

"We will do nothing, we will not contact the immigration bureau to clarify this information," he added.

Chronic food and energy shortages have driven a growing number of North Koreans from their impoverished homeland, and many of them have been arriving at Thailand's northern border.

Typically North Koreans arriving here escaped their country through China, and then trekked through the Golden Triangle region where Myanmar, Laos and Thailand border each other.

Agence France Presse

The Nation

Quote:Chronic food and energy shortages have driven a growing number of North Koreans from their impoverished homeland, and many of them have been arriving at Thailand's northern border.

Another communist `success` story then? :roll:

UNHCR hopes NKorean migrants in Thailand will go to third country

The United Nations refugee agency said Thursday it hopes 175 North Korean migrants arrested in Bangkok will be able to leave for a third country within days.

The North Koreans, mostly women and children, were found late Tuesday hiding in an abandoned home in Bangkok. Police believe they entered the kingdom from one of its northern borders two months ago.

The 136 females and 39 males were held on charges of illegal entry after failing to produce passports and visas.

The Bangkok office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the agency has consulted with Thai officials on how to help the North Koreans.

"Our staffs have met and discussed with the North Koreans, along with our consultation given to the Thai officials," UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty Mckinsey told AFP.

"We want to reach a positive solution for them very soon. Hopefully, they would be deported to a third country in the next few days."

Thai immigration officials took 134 of them to court Thursday. The number excludes the 25 children in the group, as well as 16 people found to have refugee certificates from the UNHCR.

Those 16 have already been cleared by the UNHCR to relocate to a third country. Thai officials said they would probably be sent to South Korea.

Officials described it as the largest single group of migrants from the reclusive communist state ever arrested in Thailand. They had come via China, then travelled though Myanmar or Laos before entering Thailand.

A charge of illegal entry is punishable by a fine of up to 20,000 baht (533 US dollars) and two years in prison. If they cannot pay the fine, the North Koreans could be jailed.

Meanwhile, North Korea's government said Wednesday it would consult with its Thai counterparts before taking any measures. South Korean newspapers say many of the refugees hope to settle there.

But Thailand's foreign ministry said it had yet to have any concrete discussion with Seoul's embassy in Bangkok.

"There have been talks on an official level to update their information, but there has been no progress or any concrete action," the ministry's spokesman Kitti Wasinon told AFP.

Agence France-Presse