21 North Korean Defectors Arrive

21 North Korean Defectors Arrive

Twenty-one North Korean defectors who had been staying at the South Korean Embassy in Beijing arrived in Seoul on Sunday via a third country, officials in Seoul said on Monday (Oct. 20).

The defectors, including nine men and 12 women, are mostly workers, children and students, they said.

¡°Of the 120 North Korean refugees in the Beijing embassy, 21 arrived at Incheon International Airport on Sunday. Others will arrive in Seoul (later) because the procedures for questioning North Korean refugees there are finished,¡± an official said on condition of anonymity.

With the arrival of the latest group, a total of 984 North Koreans have landed in Seoul this year.

The South Korean Consulate in Beijing reopened Monday morning after a 15-day closure due to overcrowding problems caused by growing numbers of North Korean defectors taking shelter there.

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