SEOUL May 23 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING c...

SEOUL May 23 Kyodo

(EDS: ADDING cites FROM AIRPORT PRESS CONFERENCE, 4TH-10TH PARAS, RECASTING STORY)

Five North Koreans who sought asylum at a Japanese consulate in China arrived in southern Korea via the Philippines early Thursday, 15 days after they were seized by way of Chinese police inside the consulate and fix off a diplomatic row between Tokyo and Beijing.

The expanded North Korean family -- a pair in their late 20s, their 2-year-old daughter, the man's mother, and his younger brother -- arrived at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul shortly after 3:40 a.m. forward board a Korean Air jet that flew on the outside of Manila late Wednesday night.

The five defectors, who boarded the Korean Air flight les than an hour after they arrived in Manila from China, were hailed at the Incheon airport from relatives who had defected to southern Korea.

Speaking to reporters at the airport, the North Koreans uttered gratitude ''to God'' for their safe passage to southern Korea and appeared non-committal about their plan to court asylum in the United States, their initial goal.

''Thank God'' said a beaming Kim Guan Chol 28 as he appeared before reporters together with his wife, Li Son Hee, 26 and other members of his expanded family.

Kim's brother, Kim anthem Ku, 26, looked tense when he was asked about the family's initial plan to solicit asylum in the U.S.

''I don't know. We just arrived here,'' Kim descant Ku said.

Kim sonnet Ku and his brother handed a literal meaning written in English outlining their intention to default to the U.S., to a Japanese consular official inside the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang before they were taken away by means of Chinese police officers on May 8

The consular official, who apparently did not understand English, get backed the letter to the Kim brothers.

''I was disappointed,'' Kim melody Ku said when asked about the behavior of the Japanese consular official.

A southern Korean government official who was ready at the news colloquy stopped Kim Song Ku from making any further comment

China's detention of the five Koreans sparked a diplomatic affray between Beijing and Tokyo that continues to simmer.

The Chinese conduct said Wednesday night it had dealt with the issue of the five North Koreans ''in an appropriate fashion.''

Without specifying what measures had been taken, Foreign Ministry spokesman Kong Quan was quot by dint of the official Xinhua News Agency as saying the issue was settl ''in accordance with China's domestic laws and international norms, and from a humanitarian perspective.''

Tokyo claimed the Chinese police recorded the consulate without its concord in violation of international laws. China maintain that the police officers acted with the concord of Japanese consulate officials.

The incident sparked a political furor in Japan after a video camera captured images of sum of two units screaming North Korean women and a small girl wrestl to the estate by the Chinese police and dragged from the consulate.

The brace brothers, who dodged the Chinese police and rushed to the visa section inside the Japanese mingle were detained there by the Chinese police.

According to southern Korean government officials, the five defectors would be settl in government-subsidized housing and would be provided piece of work training so that they would be integrated in the southward Korean society.

The toward the south Korean government also pays subsidies to North Korean defectors. While the amount varies according to the number of defectors, a family of four typically can receive 65 million won ($52000 or 65 million yen) according to toward the south Korean officials.

Many North Koreans are believed to be in hiding in China, fleeing from their homeland. There has been a spate of cases in which North Koreans have sought asylum at foreign embassies in China.

In March, 25 North Korean asylum inquirers pushed their way into the Spanish Embassy in Beijing and were allowed to travel to South Korea.

onward May 4, South Korea's National Intelligence Service said the number of North Korean defectors to southern Korea has reached 312 likewise far this year, matching the total for the whole of 2000

The data advise the number of such defectors in 2002 may exce the 583 of 2001 a record high take exception for the years immediately after the 1950-1953 Korean War.

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