Fears for defector who didn't make it into embassy
Human rights groups have expressed concern about the fate of a man who failed to enter the Canadian embassy during a mass storming of the mission by a large group of North Korean defectors.
Television pictures showed the man falling out of a tree overhanging the spiked metal fence surrounding the embassy as Chinese security guards pulled away the ladder used by the group to gain entry.
'I can guarantee his fate will be quite different from those of the defectors who gained sanctuary in the embassy. He will probably be returned to North Korea and will be treated very harshly because he has committed a capital crime,' said Tim Peters of a non-governmental organisation, Helping Hands, which works with defectors.
The man, said by South Korean media to be in his seventies, was taken away by Chinese police.
The defection saga was further complicated yesterday when nine North Koreans were taken away by police after they entered the Shanghai American School, mistaking it for a place they could seek asylum.
'They may have entered the school assuming it was the American consulate,' said Jennifer Galt, spokeswoman for the US consulate in Shanghai. 'The Shanghai American School is not consulate property. We have urged the Chinese authorities in Shanghai and Beijing not to return them to North Korea against their will.'
Seoul, meanwhile, is to send representatives to help Canadian officials verify the identities of the 12 men, 26 women and six children who entered the embassy premises in Beijing on Wednesday.
'Some sustained minor injuries when they came over the fence. One injury was sufficiently severe that we moved the person to a medical facility,' said embassy spokesman Ian Burchett.
The group included two political prisoners, according to South Korea's Chosun newspaper. One was identified as a 66-year-old woman who had been held in a concentration camp.
The 44 people, thought to be the single largest group of North Korean defectors to storm a foreign mission, are being housed in a large function room.
'They have access to washrooms, they are receiving food and water, and we have even bought toys for the children,' Mr Burchett said. The embassy is holding discussions with Chinese authorities.
This is the third such breach of the Canadian embassy in Beijing following similar incursions by North Korean defectors in May 2002 and June last year.
'In both cases we managed to resolve the situation in close consultation with the Chinese authorities and with due respect to Chinese law,' said Mr Burchett.
Dozens of North Koreans have gained political asylum in South Korea after scaling the walls of diplomatic missions in China. Beijing allows North Koreans who succeed in gaining entry into foreign missions to travel to the South via a third country, but it also has an agreement with Pyongyang to deport those it catches.
