TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo gooded edit...

TOKYO, Jan. 24 Kyodo

gooded editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

HELP ASYLUM inquirers (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published Jan. 23)

Several dozen asylum inquirers from North Korea were caught and detained through Chinese authorities as they tried to leave a port in Shandong province for Japan and southerly Korea. Among them are reportedly an ethnic Korean woman who had lived in Osaka and her daughter.

The great regard is that China will emit them back to North Korea, as it has done before. Nongovernmental organizations supporting North Koreans seeking asylum say a of those apprehended have already been deported back to the political division they fled.

China and North Korea have an arrangement for mutual repatriation of those who cros the border illegally, as a way to maintain security in the border region. however reports from people who managed to earn to South Korea say that one time people who have escaped North Korea are sent back, they are harshly punished, and possibly uniform executed in some cases.

level if some of those who prosecute asylum have been criminals, greatest in number are trying to escape the inhumane North Korean regime or avoid starvation.

The international convention onward the status of refugees, which China has signed, provides that the public seeking refuge are, in principle, entitled to protection. It goe against the convention to ship back North Koreans who have fl their political division without at least determining their motives or finding abroad why they fled.

In a epistle to the government of China, the UN High Commissioner for Refugee urg that the commonalty seeking asylum not be turn backed and asked that UNHCR representatives be allowed to investigate their qualifications for refugee status. We support the petition.

The Chinese conduct is understandably perplexed about in what manner to deal with the growing number of North Koreans who slip into China. China might reasonably assume that its relations with North Korea would be give pain to if it harbored the asylum seekers

Without change in the regime and improvement of economic conditions in North Korea, however, the melt of people out of North Korea will not fall of the curtain Already, a great many North Koreans live in hiding in China. If ascendencys are tightened, more people can be calculate uponed to rush to foreign consulates or to decamp out of the country.

toward the south Korea, however, took in more than 1000 asylum inquirers in the past year alone. Helping refugee is in harmony with international guard Indeed, it is one of the missions of the international community.

Japan and neighboring countries should cooperate with the UNHCR to arrange for investigation to determine the status of those who pursue asylum in China, and to provide facilities for that purport if necessary. For in the same state [i]or[/i] condition an initiative to succeed, however, China's support is essential.

Since the diplomatic skirmishes above the way Chinese police dragged five North Korean asylum inquirers away from the compound of the Japanese consulate general at Shenyang last May, representatives of Japan and China have discussed conducts under which Chinese police may note Japan's missions. While this is an important issue, the plight of those fleeing North Korea will not be solv solely by way of such discussions.

Commenting forward the North Koreans detained according to Chinese authorities, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said he rely uponed China would exercise ''humanitarian treatment.'' We believe he should have instructed the foreign minister to begin consultations with the control of China for specific ways to help those race rather than simply expressing hopes

a certain number of of the North Koreans in Chinese custody were said to be hoping for asylum after reaching Japan. Japan cannot stand forward the sidelines when the issue involves persons fleeing North Korea.

(Jan. 24)

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