Eight Defectors Want to Go to the United States

As Chinese armed policemen forcefully carried away five relatives of Chang Gil-Soo from the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China, a diplomatic row is looming over between China and Japan. In midst of this, since the Chinese side announced the Japanese Consulate General agreed to have the defectors carried away and the Japanese press reported consecutively the incidents, the Japanese diplomatic authority has been cornered.

Additionally, the New York Times reported on May 11 that the U.S. was considering ways how to handle the situation since five relatives of Chang who were under custody of the Chinese police and three defectors who entered into the US Consulate General in Shenyang have known to want to go to the U.S. as they worried about the reprisal of North Korean spies active in South Korea and oppression of their relatives remaining in North Korea.

A related person of the US Consulate General said on May 12, "We are negotiating with the Chinese side for five days about the fate of three defectors who entered the consulate general, "but indicated little progress was made on the negotiation as it said, "The situation remains unchanged."

The Japanese Asahi Shimbun quoted an announcement of the Chinese Embassy in Japan that the consul of the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang consented the Chinese police arrest against five North Koreans who entered into the premise of the consulate, and the paper reported that the consul staff consented the arrest after confirming it over a mobile phone to a boss and submitted a resignation for the action.

Additionally, according to the reports of the Japanese press including the Daily Yomiuri on May 11, Japanese vice consul who originally witnessed the accident at the consulate building has not questioned nor wanted to hear the circumstance when five or six Chinese policemen dragged away two North Korean defectors already entered into the premise, and the vice counsel has done nothing for ten minutes but said only, "Please calm down," to the mother of a baby girl who was blocked by the Chinese police in the main gate.

Earlier, spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry Kong Quan announced, "As we investigated it, the five unidentified persons have been escorted away by our armed policemen as the Japanese consul consented to the action," against which the Japanese Embassy in Beijing immediately countered, "Our consul has not consented."

The Japanese government dispatched a fact-finding investigative team of the foreign ministry on May 11 to the site to probe on the reaction process of the consular staff and the circumstance of forcible entry of the Chinese police. In addition, vice minister of the foreign ministry Sukiura Sayken will be sent to China to negotiate the transfer of the five defectors.

The Japanese government is rumored to consider sending the five relatives of Chang family to South Korea after temporarily departing them to a third country.

In other hand, our government relayed messages to the Chinese and Japanese governments, in which our government requested an expedient proceedings of the five relatives of Mr. Chang based on humanitarian principles and expressed our position that the diplomatic row between the two countries should not affect the fate of the defectors and our willingness to accept the defectors when they want to go to South Korea.

Young-Ee Lee yshwang@donga.com