"All you have to do is examine the "Gate Rule." We have gates in nations. Some to keep people in, some to keep people out. Guess which nations have to keep their people in?"....
William J. Bennent
TOKYO - (Reuters) - A diplomatic row between Japan and China over apparent North Korean asylum seekers has taken another twist after video showed Chinese guards dragging two women and a child from within Japan's consulate in the city of Shenyang.
Japan has lodged a strong protest against what it said was a violation of international diplomatic conventions and demanded that Beijing hand the people over into Japanese custody.
Earlier accounts said that two men had succeeded in entering the Japanese consulate before being seized by Chinese police despite protests by Japanese diplomatic staff, but that the two women and child were grabbed outside the gate.
But the video, aired by Japanese television late Thursday and again Friday, showed the women and child also made it inside the gate before being dragged out by Chinese police.
Several people who appeared to be Japanese consulate employees stood watching while the women clung to the gate, screaming for help.
At least one of those people later picked up caps lost by the Chinese police during the scuffle and returned them.
The incidents, which followed a spate of successful bids by North Koreans seeking asylum, highlight China's refusal to recognize as refugees the tens of thousands of North Koreans hiding on its border with its long-time communist ally.
The episodes also come at an uncomfortable time for often-testy Sino-Japanese ties.
China and Japan's World Cup soccer co-host, South Korea, reacted with outrage to Koizumi's visit last month to the Yasukuni Shrine where war criminals are among those honored.
Visits by Japanese prime ministers to Yasukuni periodically jolt Tokyo's ties with its Asian neighbors who suffered under its wartime aggression.
The video could not only stiffen Japan's demand to have all five people handed over but spark domestic criticism of the Foreign Ministry's handling of the affair.
"What should be corrected must be corrected," Japanese media quoted Koizumi as saying late Thursday.
"I want to review what they did to deal with the situation."
Japan's Foreign Ministry has been under fire after a series of scandals over the misuse of public funds by bureaucrats and another over meddling in diplomacy by a ruling party lawmaker.
A panel of advisers Thursday recommended a number of reforms to the ministry, including appointing more non-diplomats as ambassadors.
ChiComs lied about it as well -- then were exposed by the video.
2002/5/10
BEIJING, APBrushing off an escalating diplomatic mess, China insisted Thursday that its paramilitary guards were just offering protection when they burst into a Japanese consulate to extract two suspected North Korean asylum-seekers. Japan demanded an explanation.
Another North Korean, meanwhile, scaled the wall of the American consulate in Shenyang, the same northeastern city, bringing to three the number of North Koreans inside that diplomatic facility, a U.S. spokeswoman said. South Korean activists promised more to come.
Kong Quan, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the People's Armed Police were not only respecting the international practice of protecting diplomatic compounds -- contained in the Treaty of Vienna -- but were being diligent given "the backdrop of the international fight against terrorism."
"The Chinese guards did their duty," he said. "It was totally out of concern for the consul general."
Japan, whose relations with China are often punctuated by tension, said otherwise.
The Japanese prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, said Thursday in his country's parliament that he had strongly protested the Chinese police action.
Japan said the two people inside its consulate, said to be members of a North Korean family, were removed Wednesday despite pleas from Japanese staff. Three others were caught outside at the gate. Koizumi met Thursday with Hu Qili, a high-ranking Chinese official visiting Tokyo, and asked for China to "deal with this issue sincerely," according to Misako Kaji, a spokeswoman for Koizumi.
"Our embassy in China immediately protested to the Chinese government and we are waiting for a reply," Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi said. Diplomatic offices are foreign territory under international treaty, and Chinese authorities are not supposed to enter them without permission. Kong refused to say whether the guards were under instructions to breach other nations' sovereign soil.
But the Chinese government, caught between its alliance with North Korea and its hunger for international acceptance, is jumpy about the spate of North Koreans barging into embassies in Beijing and, now, consular offices in other cities.
Shenyang, the biggest city in China's northeast, is of particular concern. Thousands of North Koreans are believed to live in hiding in the region, which abuts the North Korean border.
Across Beijing's embassy neighborhoods in recent weeks, guards have been seen toting billy clubs and even aluminum baseball bats. Paramilitary officers in camouflage garb troll the sidewalks with automatic weapons. Hundreds of meters (yards) of barbed wire have been erected atop walls and along sidewalks.
The three inside the U.S. consulate remained in diplomatic limbo Thursday night. A spokeswoman, on customary condition of anonymity, said American diplomats were working with the Chinese government "to resolve the situation."
China wouldn't say whether those detained were North Koreans or whether they would be sent home.
Two North Koreans who entered the U.S. Embassy in April were allowed to leave for South Korea. The United States has said repeatedly that North Koreans should not be repatriated to probable persecution.
In Seoul, South Korean activists gave a letter to the Japanese Embassy appealing to Tokyo to demand custody of the five detainees. The Citizens' Coalition for the Human Rights of North Korean Defectors and of Peace said it also organized the mass asylum bid at the Spanish Embassy in March. "There will be more similar attempts as long as North Koreans crave for freedom," said Do Hee-yoon, the group's spokesman.
This is the ChiCom's contribution to the fight against terrorism.
In the picture at top you can see the little girl is still inside the consulate, whereas they have all ready dragged the mother out.
"All you have to do is examine the "Gate Rule." We have gates in nations. Some to keep people in, some to keep people out. Guess which nations have to keep their people in?"....
William J. Bennent
For her 'crime' of seeking freedom this young lady's child was taken from her.
And some people keep insisting that Red China is "opening up" to democracy.