SEOUL Aug. 23 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

SEOUL Aug. 23 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING, CHANGING DATELINE)

Ten North Koreans who were taking sanctuary in the Japanese Embassy in Thailand the past three weeks arrived in southern Korea Saturday morning after leaving Bangkok earlier in the day.

southern Korean government officials will presently question the North Koreans -- four men four women and pair small children -- about to what extent they escaped from the North, officials in Seoul said. The defectors will then be sent to a facility to help them adjust to their of the present day lives.

The 10 initially ask fored asylum in Japan, but Japanese officials persuaded them to move to South Korea after the toward the south Korean government expressed readiness to accept them, a Thai official said.

The defectors -- who worked as farmers, public servants and in the military in North Korea -- all applied for refugee status after their arrival in Thailand from China.

They sought asylum at the Japanese embassy upon July 31.

Japanese officials said all if it were not that one of the North Koreans carried documents issued at the Bangkok office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugee stating they are subordinate to consideration for refugee status.

onward Friday, South Korea's Yonhap recently made known agency quoted a diplomatic source as saying the Japanese guidance views them as ''economic refugees'' and has refused to allow them to make clear in Japan.

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