North Korean 'Boat People' in Mass Defection

August 19, 2002

INCHEON, South Korea -- A group of 21 North Korean family members has arrived in South Korea after spending two days on a fishing boat in what is believed to be the biggest such defection from the communist state.

Dubbed "boat people" by local media, the group were intercepted by water police on Sunday and escorted to the South Korean port city of Incheon.

The presumed asylum seekers -- 11 adults and 10 children -- say they are members of three families and left for the South early Saturday from a village near Shinuiju, a North Korean city near the border with China.

They are also the largest family group to escape from the poverty- and hunger-stricken North.

The last direct defection by North Koreans was in 1997, when 14 people reached the South, also by boat.

The latest high-profile incident may pose a threat to progress made between the two Koreas during talks last week -- the highest-level diplomatic exchanges between the rivals since a deadly naval battle in June.

Hunger, repression

The group was taken to Seoul on Monday where asylum seekers traditionally are debriefed and given special housing to help them adjust to life in the South.

South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo said the defectors fled North Korean because of hunger.

Droughts and other natural disasters have compounded a massive food shortage since 1995 that aid agencies estimate has left several million dead.

Fleeing famine and repression, thousands of North Koreans have escaped from their homeland with many believed to be hiding in China.

Nearly 600 asylum seekers have reached the South through a third country this year, The Associated Press news agency reported.

Threat to relations

Since March, about 60 North Koreans sought refuge in embassies and foreign missions in China. Despite an agreement with Pyongyang requiring Beijing to return fleeing North Koreans, China has allowed many to leave for the South.

Divided in 1945, North and South Korea share one of the world's most heavily armed borders, a land crossing by would-be defectors is all but impossible.

The North Korean 'boat people' defected across the western sea border where North and South Korean naval forces clashed on June 29, leaving five Southern and an undisclosed number of Northern sailors dead.

Pyongyang has expressed regret for the naval incident and resumed high-level contacts with the South last week.

North and South Korea are split by the Demiliarised Zone which has bisected the Korean Peninsula since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/east/08/19/korea.asylum/index.html