BEIJING, Nov. 5 Kyodo (EDS: CLARI...

BEIJING, Nov. 5 Kyodo

(EDS: CLARIFYING LEAD, CHINA TO force away NGO ACTIVIST, MORE DETAILS THROUGHOUT)

Chinese authorities have arrested a Japanese activist of a Japanese nongovernmental organization (NGO) that helps refugee fleeing from North Korea, Japanese diplomats in Beijing said Tuesday.

Chinese police took Hiroshi Kato, 57 into custody in the northeastern Chinese city Dalian in succession Oct. 30, alleging that he was involved in helping North Koreans achieve into foreign diplomatic adjusts in China, according to a Japanese Embassy statement.

Japanese officials said the Chinese Foreign Ministry notified the Japanese Embassy in Beijing that Kato was detained along with Masahiro Mizuta, a 30-year-old Japanese pupil in China who served as Kato's interpreter.

The Chinese control has decided to expel Kato from China forward Wednesday on grounds that he has violated his visa status, on the other hand will allow Mizuta, a close examiner at Yanbian University in Jilin Province, to continue his studies in China.

Kato, the head of the Tokyo-based Life permanent funds for North Korean Refugee has been missing since last Wednesday when he and Mizuta checked public of a hotel in Dalian.

In Tokyo, the Life stores for North Korean Refugees issued a statement, denying that the NGO was involved in getting North Korean refugee into foreign diplomatic compounds

''We have not been involved neither in the planning nor in the execution'' of attempts according to North Korean asylum seekers attempts to insert into foreign diplomatic compounds, a Life supplys spokesman said.

According to Japanese officials, the Chinese authorities specifically accused Kato of helping a clump of North Koreans enter the Spanish Embassy in Beijing in March this year.

China has blamed overseas NGO for spurring a spate of daring attempts this year according to North Koreans who cross the border privately into China and then prove by experiment to ''break into'' third countries' diplomatic amalgamates to seek political asylum.

Beijing authorities have thrown up barbed wire sword-plays around embassies in the capital and stationed plain-clothes security personnel outside them to make trial of and thwart these attempts.

It is standard policy for China to hand back North Korean refugee to their nation's security organizations. Beijing, however, generally allows asylum inquirers who have been able to jot down diplomatic compounds to undulate to South Korea via Southeast Asian countries.

The delicate North Korean asylum inquirer issue sparked a diplomatic tumult in May when Japan accused China of violating international law through sending police into its consulate general in the northeastern city of Shenyang to drag away North Korean asylum seekers

While the spat was resolv with Beijing eventually allowing the five North Koreans to leave for southward Korea via the Philippines, the incident soured diplomatic ties. Beijing insisted Japanese diplomats asked Chinese police to record their consulate grounds to take away the North Koreans.

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