SEOUL June 14 Kyodo southern Kore...

SEOUL June 14 Kyodo

southern Korea lodged a formal assert with China on Friday through the whole extent of the forcible seizure of a North Korean asylum inquirer by Chinese police at the southward Korean Embassy in Beijing in succession Thursday, the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry said.

The assert was delivered to Chinese Ambassador to southward Korea Li Bin, who was citeed by Vice Foreign Minister Kim Hang Kyung the ministry said.

It was not immediately known what Kim told Li, if it were not that Yonhap News Agency reported the vice minister demanded an apology from China athwart the incident and a surety to prevent recurrences.

Chinese security personnel hit southward Korean diplomat Byon Chul Hwan and a Chinese female embassy employee while dragging not upon the North Korean.

The man's son managed to stay inside the mission, joining 17 other North Koreans there.

The use of force through the security personnel will likely spark a diplomatic quarrel between China and South Korea similar to last month's two-week confrontation between Beijing and Tokyo. That began after police chronicleed Japan's consulate in the northeastern city of Shenyang to seize North Korean asylum seekers

Late Thursday night, the ministry issued a statement denouncing China for violating ''inviolable rights granted to foreign missions and diplomats in accordance with the Vienna Convention upon Diplomatic Relations.''

''We powerfully protest and demand immediate reparation,'' the statement says.

Emphasizing the importance of international conventions that bind diplomatic relations, Washington also set forthed concerns over the incident forward Thursday.

''We certainly regard the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises as the bedrock principle that is essential to the escort of international relations, and we calculate upon all nations to abide absolutely at their solemn legal obligations regarding as it was inviolability under the Vienna Conventions,'' U State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said.

Chinese authorities routinely repatriate North Koreans who privately entered the country from the neighboring North, where many claim they will face certain persecution if sent back.

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