A source in Beijing who is familiar with information on North Korea said about 30 North Korean defectors entered a Japanese school located in Beijing on Wednesday. In connection with the news, the Japanese Foreign Ministry revealed that 29 people who are assumingly North Korean defectors rushed into a Japanese school in Beijing at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday (local time.)

29 North Korean defectors intrude into a Japanese school in Beijing.

The neighborhood of the school, which is situated near the Lido Hotel in Chaoyang District in Beijing, has remained calm as usual. An official of the school said in a phone call, “I don’t know anything about that and I cannot talk about it because the headmaster is absent.”

The Korean embassy in Beijing also said that it had not known about North Korean defectors intruding into a Japanese school and it would check whether or not it is true.

It is presumed that a South Korean or Japanese organization supporting North Korean defectors helped the people enter the school. The Japanese Embassy in Beijing sent staff to identify the personal information of the intruders.

The number of the intruders marks the largest ever among cases of North Korean defectors who have entered foreign embassies or foreign schools.

In February last year, four North Korean defectors intruded into the Japanese school in Beijing and were placed under the protection of the Japanese Embassy in Beijing. They were sent to South Korea via Singapore.

(englishnews@chosun.com )