`Refugees only Allowed in the US Territories`

The US State Department stated on May 29 that refugee seeking asylum to the United States can only file the refugee status through the United States territories, not through the US embassies located in overseas.

Spokesperson of the department, Richard Boucher, answered in a regular briefing to a question what is the US policy on North Korean defectors who want to seek refugee in the United States, `Legally speaking, only persons physically present in the Unites States territories or within its border can seek refugee in the United States, and they can not do so in the US embassies.`

Spokesperson Boucher said, `The United States embassies are not there to fulfill the objective of refugee filing,` and added, `It is rare cases to file a refugee status through the embassies.`

He answered to a question whether the US embassies are regarded as the US territories, `The embassies are not physically present within the United States, and even though the embassies are sanctuary in diplomatic perspective, they are not territories of the United States.` He explained further, `We will review the refugee status of these Koreans If the UN requests us to do so, but that is a different procedure.

Spokesperson Boucher remarked on the demand of Chinese government to hand over the North Korean refugees in the Korean Embassy in China, `The issue is to be dealt with by a direct dialogue between the governments of the Republic of Korea and China.` The remarks of spokesperson Boucher seems to an expression of a directive not to allow filing refugee status of North Korean defectors to the United States through overseas embassies of the United States.

Ki-Heung Han eligius@donga.com