China Lets 26 North Koreans Leave Country

BEIJING —  China allowed 24 North Korean asylum seekers who had managed to get into the South Korean Embassy offices here to leave for Seoul on Sunday, ending a diplomatic impasse that strained relations with its Asian neighbors and dramatized the desperation of North Korean refugees.

The refugees arrived in South Korea early today on a flight from Bangkok, Thailand. Earlier, two North Koreans who had sought refuge in the Canadian Embassy in the Chinese capital arrived in Seoul.

Despite a bilateral agreement to repatriate North Koreans, China has allowed at least 38 other asylum seekers to fly to Seoul through a third country since March. Sunday’s move to permit more refugees to join them underscored the government’s unwillingness to tarnish its international reputation for the sake of its Communist ally.

“China has been criticized on its human rights record and its treatment of refugees,” said Warren Cohen, a China expert at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County. “This is a way to get rid of the bad press. The key is how much does it lose with North Korea. Chances are, not much.”

Beijing appears to have covered all the bases in calculating its best interests. For the North Korean regime in Pyongyang, it tried hard to block the asylum seekers. It even sent security forces into the South Korean visa office, and they dragged out the father of a teenage boy and punched out diplomats who tried to stop them. An outraged Seoul demanded an apology from Beijing for violating international law. The father was among those allowed to leave Sunday.

Beijing also offended Tokyo when its guards entered a Japanese Consulate in northern China last month and wrestled down a North Korean mother with her baby. The skirmish was broadcast around the world and provoked an international outcry.

Those refugees were allowed to leave for Seoul. But the ones holed up in the South Korean Embassy offices--the first of whom entered May 23--faced a longer wait for a resolution of their cases. There was no sign of a breakthrough until Friday, when Beijing said that a pregnant woman would be permitted to go.

China continues to insist that such North Korean emigres are illegal immigrants, not political refugees. It won’t allow United Nations inspectors to interview them within its borders, so there’s no way they can claim refugee status. Without such protection, thousands of North Koreans have been shipped home to face harsh conditions.

But those who have participated in well-publicized dashes for freedom into various foreign compounds in China have put their plight on the international radar and thrown Beijing into a diplomatic jam.

The city responded by transforming its leafy embassy district into a fortress of barbed wire and armed guards. The message seems clear: China does not welcome the hundreds of thousands of North Koreans who have already penetrated its borders, and it does not intend to permit any more break-ins at its foreign missions.

To the rest of the world, however, allowing the two dozen North Koreans to reach the South presents a different image of China--one of a nation that is flexible enough to bend the rules so that people won’t have to return to a country where they will almost certainly face hunger and persecution.

“China can’t afford to spoil its relationship with other countries,” said Shen Dingli, a specialist in international affairs at Fudan University in Shanghai. “If we permit them to leave, our relationship with North Korea would be slightly impaired. Our relationship with other countries will not be impaired at all. In fact, they will respect China’s move.”

The risk remains that the humanitarian gesture could provoke a new wave of asylum seekers. If the Pyongyang regime collapses as a result of a mass exodus, Beijing will lose a buffer zone against American-backed South Korea and jeopardize its cherished influence on the tense Korean peninsula.

In all likelihood, observers say, China will intensify the crackdown by tightening security at its northern border, where the population includes many ethnic Koreans who have long offered shelter to destitute brethren searching for food and refuge. The government will probably aim to capture asylum seekers before they can reach Beijing and stage more run-ins.

But China can’t stop the escalating refugee crisis any more than Washington can prevent Mexicans from risking their lives to cross into the United States.

Despite war-zone-like security, three North Koreans made it into the South Korean Embassy offices here over the last several days. Insiders say they probably got past the guards using fake identity papers.

“The conditions are so bad, they don’t need much encouragement,” Cohen said. “The alternative is starving to death.”