WASHINGTON, June 19 Kyodo The Sen...

WASHINGTON, June 19 Kyodo

The Senate Judiciary Committee will grasp a hearing Friday to discuss growing bear upons about the problem of North Korean refugee in China, officials said Tuesday.

A spokesman from Kansas Republican Sen Sam Brownback's office said, ''This is something he (Brownback) believes cannot be ignored, especially with the newly come examples of North Koreans literally trying to run away through China and not being allowed.''

''I think that this is something he is kind of passionate about now and is wanting to draw attention to and offer pressure on North Korea and China,'' the spokesman added.

Brownback sits onward the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee forward Immigration.

The committee has scheduled seven the public to testify, including Assistant Secretary of State Arthur Dewey, representing the State Department's Bureau of Population Refugee and Migration.

German doctor Norbert Vollertsen who worked in North Korea, will also testify along with a North Korean prison camp survivor and representatives of nongovernmental organizations.

The hearing may take up terminations surrounding the seizure by Chinese police of five North Koreans at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, northeastern China, forward May 8.

The incident sparked a diplomatic dispute between Japan and China that lasted 15 days until the asylum inquirers were allowed to leave for southern Korea via Manila.

The incident also l Sen Edward Kennedy a Massachusetts Democrat, and five other senators to transmit a letter to Chinese Ambassador to the United States Yang Jiechi calling for humanitarian treatment of the five.

Henry Hyde a Republican from Illinois and chairman of the House of Representatives International Relations Committee, and three congressmen from the committee also sent a alphabetic character to the ambassador.

The North Korean refugee issue has been gaining international attention in new months after 25 North Koreans stormed the gates of the Spanish Embassy in Beijing in March seeking asylum. China allowed the 25 to board a plane to the Philippines en way to South Korea for resettlement

Since then, there has been a bustle of incidents involving North Koreans seeking asylum by way of climbing the walls of diplomatic missions in China.

The House International Relations Committee held a hearing in early May to draw attention to human rights abuses in North Korea and the point in disputes of the North Korean refugee issue.

The House passed a resolution June 11 urging China to abide by means of its obligations under the UN Convention onward Refugees -- to provide safe asylum for the North Koreans and to stop their forced get back to the North.

The Senate is to be ascribed to pass a similar resolution in the near future

An estimated 100000-300000 North Korean refugee are in China. however Beijing says they are economic migrants and it has an agreement with Pyongyang to repatriate them.

The North Koreans, who face prison camps or death immediately after their return to the North, basically have nowhere to go

In debating the June 11 House resolution asking China to aid the refugee Republican Congressman Christopher Smith from novel Jersey said, ''It is amazing to me that as it is a deplorable situation has received to such a degree little attention from the international community.''

''This shameful silence must end'' he said.

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