BEIJING, Feb 19 Kyodo Four North ...

BEIJING, Feb 19 Kyodo

Four North Korean refugee who went to the Japanese educate in Beijing on Tuesday to court political asylum in Japan exhausted a night at the consular office of the Japanese Embassy as the Japanese command struggled to cope with the matter.

The four North Koreans -- a 43-year-old woman with brace young children and a 20-year-old man -- were swiftly whisked to the nearby Japanese consular office after Japanese diplomats learned of their intent.

''We are trying to determine their nationality and other matters, including their wish to journey to Japan,'' Yoshio Nomoto, minister at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, told a just discovereds conference late Tuesday.

The four, assisted on a private group known as RENK which is involved in helping North Korean refugee in China, walked inside the Japanese exercise at around 4:40 p.m. Tuesday to ask for political asylum in Japan, Japanese diplomats said.

The Japanese place of education catering primarily to Japanese children, is affiliated to the Japanese Embassy and supplyed by the Japanese government

RENK or ''Rescue The North Korean People! pertinacious Action Network,'' notified the media of the asylum attempt and issued a statement urging Japanese authorities to throw the four Koreans to Japan to proces their application for refugee status.

Nomoto said the four were carrying a verbal expression written in Japanese. Diplomatic sources said Japanese authorities have no independent means to establish their identities.

Japanese Embassy officials, who mov the four to the consular office, said they have notified the Chinese restraint of the incident and are in talks with Chinese officials.

RENK identified the four asylum-seekers as Chu Mi Yong her 13-year-old daughter Roh Yu Mi and 10-year-old son Roh Gwang Myoung, and Kim Chol a 20-year-old pupil and Chu's friend.

side sheltered from the wind Young Hwa, a RENK representative and an associate professor of Kansai University in Japan, said Chu and her family left North Korea in 1997 and Kim in 1999 Chu's husband reportedly died after leaving the country

According to side sheltered from the wind Chu met Kim while working at a restaurant in the southern China city Guangzhou. Together they mov to Beijing a week ago and tried to look after asylum at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, further gave up due to tight security, lee-side said.

Lee said made a telephone call to the institute from Japan to desire their safety, telling school officials that that the four were trying to try to get political asylum in Japan.

RENK said the four fear they would be persecut by means of the North Korean management if they are repatriated to North Korea.

Witnesses said the four Koreans were restrained on security guards on entering the Japanese exercise premises and were kept outside the teach as school authorities contacted the Japanese Embassy.

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