Quoting high officials in Beijing and Tumen, as well as Korean civic groups, the source said 25-year-old Kang Eun-hee, who ran a restaurant in China, and 38-year-old Park Il-man have been on hunger strike for more than 20 days, and their lives may be in danger.

The striking refugees, who account for one third of the total population of the repatriation camp, stopped eating on Monday and have refused medical assistance from camp authorities. They are strongly objecting to Chinese authorities' measures to repatriate them to North Korea. High-level sources said as time goes on, the number of those participating in the collective hunger strike is likely to increase.

This sudden organized resistance on the part of the defectors in the camp started after seven refugees -- including two women -- were transferred to the camp on Monday from another detention center in Nanning, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. The seven were arrested trying to cross the border into Vietnam on their way to South Korea.

The seven refugees had gone on collective hunger strike before being transferred from Nanning, and by the time they entered the Jilin camp they had not eaten anything in 20 days and their lives were in danger. This stirred other refugees in Jilin into action, sources explained.

The seven who have been on strike the longest were arrested trying to cross the Chinese border into Vietnam in order to come to South Korea with the assistance of a South Korean civic group, the paper reported. Sources said, "The seven gathered in Nanning on Feb. 11, and were arrested… Since early March -- before their transfer from Nanning -- they have refused to eat anything." The sources added that when one reflects on the fact that the number of fellow strikers has suddenly increased within a span of now more than two days, one could see that the strike is organized.

The local source quoted a police source in Tumen as saying, "There have been some instances of individual refugees resisting at repatriation camps, but there has been a case of organized resistance like this, with measures like forced hunger strikes. [As a result of this incident] there is a possibility that a break may be applied to the tough policy of Chinese authorities, which in principle repatriate refugees back to North Korea."

Chinese police and camp officials are taking pains to prepare countermeasures, but they are not taking any special measures, and are raising the possibility that this may turn into international humanitarian issue.

(Yeo Si-dong, @chosun.com)