China foils daring defection bid

Security officials tackle would-be defectors as they try to scale the fence

BEIJING, China (CNN) -- In dramatic scenes, Chinese security forces have foiled a daring defection attempt by about a dozen North Korean asylum seekers in Beijing.

At about 3:15 p.m. (0700 GMT) on Monday, a group of North Korean men and women shouted as they made a dash toward a fence surrounding a multi-use compound in the east of the city, including one building which houses several embassies.

A few succeeded in scaling the fence before being tackled by Chinese security.

Chinese police had been on high alert all day, heavily guarding the entrances to most embassies in Beijing as well as diplomatic compounds like the one in eastern Beijing the asylum seekers entered.

Some of the asylum-seekers dropped onto the grass to protest police dragging them away, and many of the women screamed.

The protest had been planned for days by a religious group in South Korea operating with help from operatives inside China.

Organizers told CNN the original goal was to reach the Ecuadorian Embassy on the sixth floor of one of the buildings in the compound.

Some of the asylum seekers got as far as the entrance to the building but were then dragged back to guardhouses at the compound's gate or marched away. It did not appear that any of the North Koreans had succeeded in entering an embassy office inside the compound.

Recent incidents

The group try to storm the compound

In recent months a string of asylum seekers at a number of embassies has spurred increased security in Beijing's embassy districts and strained Chinese diplomatic ties with other countries, in particular with Tokyo and Seoul.

Monday's attempted defection was the most dramatic in weeks and brings the number of North Koreans who have sought to escape via Beijing to about 90.

In March, about two dozen North Koreans dashed into the Spanish embassy in Beijing on demanding passage to South Korea, and threatening to commit suicide if they were refused.

The group of six families and two orphan girls were allowed to leave for Seoul via the Philippines, as a result.

Earlier this summer, Chinese police entered the South Korean embassy and the Japanese consulate in Shenyang in northeastern China to drag asylum seekers away. Both actions drew protests from the respective countries.

Beijing, an ally of Pyongyang, classifies North Koreans like those who went for asylum Monday as illegal immigrants and not refugees and is bound by treaty to return them to North Korea.

But Chinese officials are also increasingly aware of criticism from Western governments, and have effectively looked the other way on a small but steady stream of North Koreans moving through the South Korean embassy and onward, usually first to Southeast Asia and then on to Seoul.

South Korea, meanwhile, accepts the asylum seekers but will not take them directly from Beijing out of deference to China's position.