- BEIJING -- The United States
has signalled its willingness to take in large numbers of North Korean
refugees in a move that could help sap internal support for the isolated
state's Stalinist regime.
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- A senior US State Department official has been in Beijing
trying to persuade the Chinese leadership to allow up to 20,000 North Koreans
hiding in China to resettle in the US and others to go to South Korea.
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- About 300,000 North Koreans are believed to be living
underground in China after sneaking across the 1300-kilometre land border
and mingling with the 2 million ethnic Koreans holding Chinese nationality.
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- Since South Korean and Western activists began a high-profile
effort to encourage defections in mid-2002 with the aim of an East Germany-style
collapse of the North Korean regime, Chinese authorities have blocked attempts
to deliver refugees to third countries or foreign embassies and deported
hundreds back to North Korea.
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- Beijing cites a concern that an uncontrolled refugee
flow would overwhelm Manchuria, where millions are jobless from the closure
of obsolete industries. But it is also worried about the risk to regional
stability if the regime of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suddenly collapses.
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- The US assistant secretary of state in charge of refugee
and migration, Arthur Dewey, said yesterday that Washington was trying
to win agreement from China to let some of the North Korean refugees travel
to the US and South Korea, where they are eligible for citizenship because
of their ethnic origin. with agencies
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- Copyright © 2003. The Age Company Ltd
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