Like I said, floodgates

Eighteen North Koreans who had been staying in Thailand after fleeing their country were scheduled to head to South Korea later Thursday, sources said, marking one of the largest defections of North Koreans to Seoul in over two years. The North Korean escapees were to arrive in South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, about 40 kilometers west of Seoul, on an Asiana Airlines flight scheduled to leave Bangkok at 10:30 p.m., an official at the South Korean Embassy in Bangkok said.

It takes about five hours to fly from Bangkok to Seoul.

Sixteen of the group, who are among 175 of their countrymen arrested by Thai immigration authorities, hold travel certificates issued by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while two others had been aiming to leave Thailand, he said. Thai immigration officials freed the sixteen North Koreans earlier in the day and they were staying at a refugee center operated by nongovernmental organizations, he said, adding that the two other North Koreans were to be released soon.

While media attention can’t buy a change in public opinion, it could save lives. It seems around $160 could help a person too.

What kind of stake does Southeast Asia have on North Korea? This kind

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) – Southeast Asian nations agreed on Thursday to include goods made in an industrial park in North Korea in a free-trade pact with the South, officials said.

The move comes a week after the United States snubbed a similar offer by Seoul, which sees the Kaesong industrial park as a model for the eventual reunification of the two Koreas.

About 6,000 North Koreans are employed in the pilot project, which began in June 2003 and includes 15 South Korean companies.

“ASEAN’s contribution in this is greatly appreciated by us,” South Korean trade minister Kim Hyun-Chong said after talks with his counterparts from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“ASEAN has agreed to accept 100 products produced in Kaesong as part of being South Korean origin,” he told a news conference. “This is an important step in integrating North Korea into the international community.”

Products made at Kaesong include watches, shoes and clothes.

Could have been much worse

THE stream of North Korean women stepping down from the caged prison van in single file, newspapers covering their faces, went on and on yesterday at North Bangkok Criminal Court.

Of 175 asylum seekers arrested in Bangkok earlier this week, 80 per cent were women. They had made their way, in small groups, across China and Laos into northern Thailand, arriving without documents.

They had come together at a large safe house in central Bangkok, and were discovered there when neighbours complained about the large number of people coming and going.

In court yesterday, they faced charges of violating Thai immigration law and could be fined 6000 baht ($209) and deported to their country of origin. However, the head of immigration police, Lieutenant-General Suwat Tumrongsiskul, said they were unlikely to be deported.

Still, I’m bothered by the uncertainty of the situation. What ought to be a simple issue of all Koreans are citizens of the RoK turned into a complex situation (diplomacy has a way of doing that). South Korea could be paying off the small fine and chartering a flight from Thailand, but “relations” are at stake. Why would any country sacrifice anything for diplomatic relations with North Korea is beyond me.

Update: That was quick

Seoul (AsiaNews) – Thailand yesterday accepted to release 175 North Korean illegal immigrants detained in Bangkok’s immigration office to allow them to go to South Korea, instead of forcing them return to the north of the peninsula.

Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, chief of Thailand’s immigration police, said they “were arrested because they crossed the border illegally. However we have decided to grant them political refugee status and so we will protect them until they leave for a third country.”

So far, Seoul has opted to keep a low profile about the matter and has said it wants to tackle it only through diplomatic channels, not to irritate the regime led by Kim Jong-il. In 2004, the South Korean government accepted 460 North Koreans coming from Vietnam, sparking chaos of controversy and official protests from Pyongyang.

Ryoo Kihl-jae, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said “the situation could not get any worse”. He explained: “The Korean peninsula has two cancerous issues – the nuclear question and the missile launches undertaken by Pyongyang on 14 July. I don’t think cross-border relations could get any worse than that.”

Aside from the 175 people ready to leave, there are another 95 North Koreans in Thailand, who have already asked for refuge with NGOs or the US Embassy: 30 have asked to go to the US.

And then the floodgates opened…