脱北者
By way of the Nikkei, a South Korean newspaper reports that a US embassy in Southeast Asia may be harboring some North Korean refugees:
Good move, of course--it's hard to imagine anyone who deserves a chance to start over in the States more than a North Korean who's managed to get out through the northern border and tough it out afterward. (The PRC is the DPRK's primary backer; it's not exactly hospitable to refugees.) It could complicate the 6-party talks, I suppose, but it's not as if there were any pretense of amity between us and North Korea anyway.
On 3 May, the South Korean daily Chosun Ilbo reported that, according to American government sources, 5 or 6 refugees who are DPRK nationals are under protection at a US embassy in Southeast Asia and that procedures to move them to the US are in progress. For safety reasons, the name of the country and the planned arrival time in the States are not being disclosed.
The US government has adopted a policy that would allow it to accept North Korean refugees through the North Korea Human Rights Act passed in 2004, but there have been no instances of asylum actually granted within the US to such refugees since the establishment of the law; when the current group enters the US, it will constitute the first such case.
Good move, of course--it's hard to imagine anyone who deserves a chance to start over in the States more than a North Korean who's managed to get out through the northern border and tough it out afterward. (The PRC is the DPRK's primary backer; it's not exactly hospitable to refugees.) It could complicate the 6-party talks, I suppose, but it's not as if there were any pretense of amity between us and North Korea anyway.