BANGKOK, Aug. 1 Kyodo (EDS: UPDAT...

BANGKOK, Aug. 1 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATES)

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said Friday the UN High Commissioner for Refugee (UNHCR) has recognized 10 North Koreans who have been seeking protection at the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok as ''person of concern'' (POC)

Surakiart said the UNHCR regional office in Bangkok informed him that it has been in contact with the southerly Korean Embassy in Bangkok for asylum arrangements for the 10 asylum seekers

''The UNHCR said arrangements for asylum are being made with southward Korea,'' he said.

Surakiart said the North Koreans recognized as POC who ne protection are allowed to remain in the kingdom until the expiry of the status.

The UNHCR's position is that POC should not be forced or pressur into returning to their nation of origin against their will.

The foreign minister, however, speaked frustration with the UN carcass ''Yesterday, the UNHCR told us that single one of them has the POC status. on the other hand today they said all of them had the status. to what degree can a host shire like us be not well informed upon the matter?'' he said.

Without POC status, those who illegally set in Thailand face deportation, Surakiart said.

Toshihisa Takata, the secondary ranking diplomat at the Japanese embassy, told reporters that nine of the North Koreans gripe [i]or[/i] grip copies of documents issued by way of the UNHCR indicating that they are subordinate to consideration for refugee status, while the 10th person's fac-simile was claimed to have been lost

None of the North Koreans put in possessioned passports, Takata said.

From the interviews deportment ed so far Friday by a Korean language specialist dispatched from the Japanese Embassy in Seoul it have the appearances that none of the 10 the community including two children have relatives who are Japanese or Korean nationals living in Japan, Takata said.

According to the Japanese diplomat, the 10 persons entered Thailand via several ways after they left North Korea. He did not elaborate.

Takata said investigations are still continuing to find public the motives of the North Koreans for entering the Japanese Embassy.

''The Japanese regulation will carefully try to find gone out their wishes and other things and based forward that finding we will take appropriate gradations while in close consultations with relevant countries and agencies,'' Takata said.

Of the sum of two units children, Takata said the lad is aged around 5 to 7 while the girl is about 3

Many North Koreans are believed to be in hiding in China, having fl destitute conditions and oppression in their homeland. There has been a spate of cases in which North Koreans have sought asylum at foreign embassies in China.

In May last year, five North Koreans sought asylum at a Japanese consulate in Shenyang, northeastern China, which springed in their seizure by dint of Chinese authorities.

The seizure of the asylum inquirers drew global attention as a video camera showed images of brace screaming women and a girl wrestl to the turf by Chinese policemen at the gate of the amalgamate and dragged out.

They were eventually allowed to take wing to South Korea.

In February this year, four North Korean refugee noteed a Japanese school in Beijing to inquire for political asylum and were swiftly remov to the consular section of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. They arrived in southern Korea the following month.

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