Nine North Koreans Escape to Vietnam

By CHOE SANG-HUN for the New York Times


SEOUL, South Korea — Nine North Koreans entered the Danish Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, on Thursday seeking political asylum and passage to Seoul, South Korean activists said.

The group entered Vietnam from China in recent weeks through smuggling routes, said Kim Sang-hun, a leader of the International Network of North Korean Human Rights Activists who assisted in the North Koreans’ escapes to Vietnam.

The rights network said the defectors carried a message in English: “We are now at the point of such desperation and live in such fear of persecution within North Korea that we have come to the decision to risk our lives for freedom rather than passively await our doom. The only power we have left is to appeal to you on our knees and with tears.”

Ole Brix Andersen, a spokesman at the Danish Foreign Ministry, confirmed that a group of people believed to be North Koreans had entered its embassy in Hanoi and “asked for help and protection,” The Associated Press reported. He said they would be allowed to stay at the embassy for the moment “because we do not send people out who could face some kind of persecution.”


full article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/world/asia/25korea.html

Reuter's article on the same event:
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE58N11P20090924