WASHINGTON, May 22 Kyodo The Unit...

WASHINGTON, May 22 Kyodo

The United States in succession Wednesday said it is pleased with the release of five North Korean asylum inquirers who had been seized by dint of Chinese police from a Japanese consulate in northeastern China earlier in the month

''We are pleased that China has resolv this case in a humanitarian manner,'' State Department substitute spokesman Phil Reeker said.

Asked if the North Korean family had applied to be resettl in the U Reeker said, ''We were not approached to provide resettlement in the United States.''

''You'd probably want to direct additional questions forward details to the parties directly involved in this: that is, the Japanese and Chinese governments'' Reeker added.

The asylum inquirers carried a letter stating their confidence to defect to the U when they were seized by the agency of Chinese police officers at the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, northeastern China, forward May 8.

The five North Koreans -- a pair their 2-year-old daughter, the man's mother and his younger brother -- arrived in southern Korea via Manila early Thursday morning 15 days after the failed asylum attempt.

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