Korean refugees target World Cup

Japan and China are still debating five refugees' fate

A leading activist for North Korean asylum seekers has again spoken of plans to use the World Cup to highlight their cause.

Norbert Vollertsen, who arranged the successful asylum bid of 25 North Koreans in March, said he would charter a boat and bring "thousands" of North Korean defectors to South Korea once the World Cup kicks off in two weeks' time.

"North Korea is a sinking ship and we will take care of the boat people who are desperate to get away," said Mr Vollertsen, who spent 18 months working in North Korea as a doctor before being expelled.

Recent North Korean escapes to South via China

June 2001 Family of seven who sheltered in UN office in Beijing

March 2002 25 people who entered Spain's Beijing embassy

May 2002 Five people from US and Canadian diplomatic sites

"There are even more crazy plans, to hijack an airplane... or to hijack a whole train or to hijack a ferry," he said.

Mr Vollertsen is adept at using the media, but the latest claims will unnerve South Korea's authorities, who hoped to reach agreement with aid groups to suspend asylum efforts during the World Cup.

He was speaking as a North Korean couple who sought refuge in the Canadian embassy in Beijing arrived in South Korea.

The couple, who said they were married and in their late 20s, brought the number of North Koreans given asylum after entering foreign diplomatic property in China to 33 since March.

Three other North Koreans arrived earlier this week after being allowed to leave the US consulate in Shenyang, north-east China.

But China and Japan have still not reached agreement over five North Koreans who entered Japan's consulate in Shenyang last week, before Chinese police evicted them.

Diplomats from both countries have denied media reports that the five would also be allowed to travel to South Korea via a third country.

Japan has called on China to hand the North Koreans back and apologise, though Beijing has so far refused both demands.

Conflicting stories

There has been an angry war of words between the two countries over their disputed version of events and whether the Chinese police were given permission to enter the consulate, as China claims.

Two of the asylum seekers earlier given safe passage

China has become increasingly worried about North Koreans seeking asylum through foreign offices in China.

China has stepped up embassy security and compounds are ringed with barbed-wire and surrounded by armed guards, some even wielding baseball bats.

Beijing, a traditional ally of North Korea, regards the tens of thousands of impoverished North Koreans living in China as economic migrants who must be sent home.

But in recent cases, the asylum seekers were allowed to go to South Korea, perhaps prompting other groups to try similar tactics.