Japan adds pressure in asylum row

Police detain one of the North Koreans trying to enter the Japanese consulate in Shenyang

TOKYO, Japan -- Japan is planning to send a high ranking politician to Beijing on Monday to negotiate directly for the handover of five North Korean asylum seekers seized from Japan's consulate in Shenyang, according to media reports in Japan.

The decision to send Senior Vice Foreign Minister Seiken Sugiura rather than a bureaucrat was intended to underscore Tokyo's anger over the incident, domestic newspapers quoted an unidentified senior foreign ministry official as saying.

"Although the decision is not 100 percent final, it is highly likely and we are moving in that direction," a foreign ministry official told Reuters.

"It would not be to investigate but more to negotiate with Chinese officials, to repeat Japan's basic stance that they must be handed over and that efforts must be made to prevent a recurrence," he said.

The vice minister would leave as soon as possible, the official told Reuters.

GALLERY Police thwarted their attempt for asylum

Japan's Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi called an emergency meeting on Saturday afternoon at which officials confirmed that no permission had been given for the Chinese police to enter the Shenyang consulate, despite Chinese statements saying they had Japan's 'consent' to do so.

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Japanese diplomats arrived in China Saturday to investigate the seizing of the two women, two men and young child on Wednesday as they sought asylum in Japan's consulate in the city of Shenyang.

Tokyo has said it is concerned about the North Koreans' human rights and would support their removal to a third country, Reuters reports.

Japan said Saturday there was no truth to the claims that a consular official had given consent for Chinese authorities to enter the consular grounds and seize the five North Koreans.

"We have investigated the incident, and Japan did not agree to the entrance of the police to the consulate and the removal of the five people," the Foreign Ministry said.

"We reiterate and strongly request that they be speedily handed over, and that China apologize and provide guarantees such an incident will not happen again," the statement read.

This latest round in the increasingly angry exchanges between the two Asian giants reflects the growing domestic pressure in Japan to get tough after video footage showing Chinese police seizing the asylum seekers from inside the compound was aired on Japanese television.

Japan accuses the Chinese authorities of violating international diplomatic conventions.

China in turn claimed that its local police had received the Japanese deputy consul's consent to grab the first two North Koreans at the scene.

Chinese policemen capture one woman trying to rush into the Japanese consulate in Shenyang

"Later a Japanese consul contacted the Chinese side on the matter, consented to it that the five persons be taken away by Chinese police and thanked the armed police officers for their efforts," the official Xinhua news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan as saying Saturday.

"It is groundless to accuse the Chinese side of entering without consent," Kong said.

Who did what?

Initial reports had suggested that police had detained two people inside the compound but that two women and a child were taken at the entrance.

However the video showed the two women and child also made it inside the gate before being dragged out by Chinese police.

Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi demanded a "sincere response from the Chinese side".

Kong reiterated that China had acted to protect the consulate from "persons of unknown identity" in line with diplomatic conventions.

Japan's foreign ministry has already come under fire for its handling of the affair with the video sparking domestic criticism that some consulate employees apparently watched while the scuffle occurred.

"The deputy consul and the other officials must be taken to task," the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper said in an editorial.

Asylum seekers on the rise

Japan's protest follows the latest in a series of cases where North Korean refugees have stormed diplomatic compounds in China in a bid for asylum outside the country.

Such cases have embarrassed China, which, under a treaty with Pyongyang, is obliged to return any North Koreans found illegally in the country.

In mid-March, a group of 25 North Koreans rushed into Spain's embassy in Beijing, eventually securing passage to South Korea.

The asylum bids have forced China to choose between its bilateral treaty obligations with North Korea to send escapees back or to risk damaging its international image.

Almost 2,000 North Korean escapees have settled in South Korea. Most have arrived via China in recent years.

The spat also comes at an uneasy time for the two Asian giants, currently preparing to commemorate the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties being established in September 1972.