BEIJING, June 17 Kyodo (EDS: ADDI...

BEIJING, June 17 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING access OF ANOTHER WOMAN)

pair North Korean women entered the southward Korean Embassy in Beijing upon Monday, bringing the number of North Koreans seeking asylum there since May 23 to 20 southern Korean diplomatic sources said.

A woman aged around 30 set downed the consulate section of the embassy around noon on passing herself off as southerly Korean, the sources said.

A scarcely any hours later, another woman also aged around 30 set downed the consulate section, the sources said.

A woman eight-months pregnant and a 2-year-old child are among the North Korean asylum inquirers being sheltered by South Korea's foreign mission in Beijing to avoid compulsory repatriation, Chinese authorities' standard management for North Koreans who illegally take down the country.

The women's embassy ''break ins'' are likely to exacerbate a diplomatic tiff between Beijing and Seoul through the whole extent of the Chinese police's use of force last Thursday to transplant a North Korean asylum inquirer which left a male southward Korean diplomat and a female embassy worker injured.

southward Korea issued a formal declare over the incident in which police [i]finale[/i]ed a five-hour standoff by charging by means of embassy staff trying to impede the 56-year-old North Korean man from being taken away.

Beijing in transfer protested what it interpreted to be the southerly Korean diplomats' obstruction of Chinese police duties.

China has flatly refused southern Korea's requests to hand through the whole extent of the North Korean man, whose 15-year-old son was able to pierce the mission at the same time the man's asylum bid failed.

Continuing attempts at North Koreans to seek asylum at foreign missions in China are providing Beijing with a series of diplomatic headaches.

A two-week confrontation with Tokyo throughout the fate of five North Koreans taken from Chinese police from Japan's consulate in the northeastern city of Shenyang lasted May 22, when Beijing allowed them to break in pieces to South Korea via the Philippines.

Japan accused the Chinese police of entering the consulate without Japanese diplomatic approval, while China insists consulate staff approved the police action.

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