Posted on 09/10/2004 9:19:51 PM PDT by yonif
Four men, believed to be North Koreans, tried to break into the South Korean consulate in Beijing yesterday under a hail of rubber bullets, but only one got through, an embassy official said today. The other three were detained after a clash with Chinese paramilitary police, during which one asylum seeker injured himself with a small knife he carried, she told Reuters.
All the men carried small knives, the source said. "I heard the Chinese security side fired rubber bullets at them. After that, one man tried to hurt himself," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "The Chinese side has expressed serious concern about the incident because the men carried weapons," she said. "They said it could be a threat to diplomats or Chinese public if this continues."
The paramilitary police, who had not been known to fire rubber bullets at asylum seekers, were unavailable for comment. Paramilitary police are a wing of the Chinese military who protect foreign embassies and government offices. The Beijing Youth Daily published a photograph of what it said was one of the captured men being treated at a paramilitary police hospital, with a clear tube running from a nostril.
The man, with closely cropped hair, was lying on a hospital bed. Blood appeared to have seeped through the hospital garb around his abdomen. The newspaper quoted a doctor treating the men as saying one had been slightly injured by rubber bullets. Asylum seekers from the reclusive communist state have been breaking into foreign embassies and consulates in China since 2002, hoping to secure passage to democratic South Korea.
Last week, 29 people, believed to be North Koreans seeking asylum, broke into a Japanese school in Beijing by climbing on stools and cutting through the wire perimeter fence. More than 460 North Korean refugees were airlifted to South Korea in July from Vietnam in a secret South Korean operation that enraged the North.
The two Koreas, China, the United States, Japan and Russia are locked in tense negotiations on the North's nuclear ambitions. But the talks have stalled due to revelations of unsanctioned South Korea uranium enrichment experiments, and the North seems to see little incentive to budge before November's US presidential election, analysts say. The embassy official said the latest attempt by asylum seekers was unlikely to affect the six-party talks.
I hear that things are not going well in N. Korea. Their botched economic reform is tearing up the already-loosening fabric of N. Korean society. The regime's inner circle, made up of a few hundred people, is starting to waver. According to stories filtering out to China, they feel their unquestioned allegiance to Kim Jong-il is no longer in their interest. Add to this Ryongchon explosion and the death of Kim Jong-il's wife, we have a system which can break with a right kick.
New Chinese Province?
or One Korea?.
Unfortunately, we don't know. It is 50/50 for both scenarios.
|
I love this book. Ping was one of my childhood favorites, and I took great joy in reading it to my daughter. Also, fittingly enough, I had Penang Duck tonight at a local Thai restaurant. Yum! Sorry, Ping. |
That's nice.
Now save the image to your own server and stop kiefing my bandwidth.
< |:)~
Why would anyone want to leave the workers paradise of North Korea? (sarcasm of course)
The situation in North Korea is dire. I hate Kim Jong-Mentally Ill. He and his father has killed millions of Koreans. He can go to Hell.
You know life is really in the sh!tter when you find yourself seeking asylum in China.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.