More N Koreans in Beijing asylum bids

Chinese guard outside the German embassy

Three North Korean refugees who made asylum bids to US and German embassies in China are thought to be heading for South Korea.

Two North Koreans entered the US embassy compound in the Chinese capital Beijing on Friday.

The South Korean foreign ministry said the two had already left China and that Seoul was getting ready to receive them.

A spokesman for the US Embassy said: "The embassy has worked with the Chinese government to resolve this situation. We appreciate the Chinese government's constructive response."

Twenty-five North Koreans surprised guards at Spanish embassy

He gave no information on how the two entered the compound.

The embassy's compounds in Beijing are heavily guarded both by American forces and a well-secured outer perimeter of Chinese military police.

A third North Korean refugee who has been holed up in the German embassy for more than a day could leave for a new life in South Korea "very soon," an embassy spokesman said.

Diplomatic minefield

The North Korean scaled the 7ft wall around the embassy compound and refused to leave.

The incidents come six weeks after 25 North Koreans burst into the Spanish embassy in Beijing and sought refuge, threatening suicide if they were sent home.

They were allowed to go to Seoul via the Philippines.

Asylum-seeking North Koreans create a diplomatic minefield for Beijing, which officially treats refugees from its close ally North Korea as economic migrants and is obliged to deport them.

But plucking people from a Western embassy to an uncertain fate in their homeland could prompt an international outcry against China, not least from close economic partner South Korea.