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In Beijing, China, diplomats are interviewing 44 people believed to be North Korean asylum-seekers who used ladders to scramble over the spiked fence of the Canadian Embassy.
The break-in is a reminder of the difficult conditions inside North Korea and the plight of tens of thousands of North Koreans who have fled their homeland.
Canadian Embassy officials in Beijing are in the process of determining the identities and objectives of the apparent North Korean defectors who broke in on Wednesday.
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A total of 45 North Korean refugees climb a metal ladder outside the wall of the Canadian Embassy in Chaoyang, Beijing, China on Wednesday. Some of them are disguised as construction laborers.
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44 men, women and children, using homemade ladders, climbed over a wired fence around the Canadian Embassy, standing on the corner of a busy northeastern street in Beijing. One group member was arrested on the scene. The group is reportedly made up of five families, and two former political prisoners, including an escapee from a North Korean prison. Reports indicate the group also includes a 66-year-old woman who was caught and sent back home in 1997 when she tried to escape from the North.
A Canadian Foreign Affairs Department spokesperson in Ottawa said embassy officials are discussing with the North Koreans where they want to go and are arranging temporary accommodations on the compound. A truck was spotted driving into the embassy carrying about a dozen mattresses.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans are presumably hiding in China's northeast. In recent years, many have sought asylum at diplomatic compounds in the Chinese capital, despite heightened security. They said they were fleeing hunger, repression or the substandard human rights situation in North Korea. Many were granted permission to enter South Korea after lengthy negotiations.
Arirang TV
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