N. Koreans leave Canadian embassy

Jon · Korean Citizen Joined: Mar 19, 2004 Posts: 525

[img:d293e594e4]http://i.a.cnn.net/cnn/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/22/northkorea.china.asylum/story.nkorea.canadabeijingsep04afp.jpg[/img:d293e594e4]

[b:d293e594e4](CNN) -- Nearly four dozen North Korean defectors, who had taken refuge in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing for nearly three months, have left for a third nation.[/b:d293e594e4]

In a statement released on Wednesday, Canadian Foreign Minister Pierre Pettigrew said the group had now left the embassy, without specifying where they were going.

In the largest recent asylum bid by a group of North Koreans, the 44 scaled the wall around the Canadian Embassy in Beijing on September 29.

Many North Korean refugees have sought asylum in embassies and diplomatic compounds in Beijing, hoping to secure passage to another nation.

As many as half a million North Korean refugees may be hiding in China, aid workers say, fleeing starvation and repression in their communist nation.

While China quietly lets high-profile cases go to South Korea through third countries, Beijing also sends many back home.

Last year, 1,285 North Korean passed through China, up from 1,140 in 2002.

[b:d293e594e4]September bid[/b:d293e594e4]
Eight children and eight elderly people were among the 44 making it into the embassy, a member of the group told CNN's Steven Jiang at the time.

Tipped off to the attempt by one of the asylum seekers, CNN Beijing bureau staff watched as the group -- some dressed as construction workers -- placed three large ladders against the embassy wall and began climbing over.

The Chinese security team appeared to have been caught off-guard by the move, making a late attempt to stop the North Koreans from making it over the wall, Jiang said.

A refugee contacted inside the embassy told CNN the group had wanted to go to the South Korean Embassy, but it was too heavily guarded.

"We have nothing to eat in North Korea," she said. "Life is very hard. We all want to go to South Korea."

Just last week, seven would-be defectors from North Korea were being questioned at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing after a security guard found them on the grounds of a school there.

It was the third time in a year that North Korean nationals have sought asylum through the Japanese mission.