Thread: North Korean Refugees End Hunger Strike

North Korean Refugees End Hunger Strike

Friday, April 18, 2008 7:30 AM

SEOUL, South Korea -- A group of North Korean refugees being held in Thailand has ended a weeklong hunger strike after the U.S. Embassy promised to speak with them about their request for asylum in the United States, a leader of the group said Friday.

But the prospect of the promised interview, set for Wednesday, was thrown into doubt later when the refugee leader said Thai authorities were moving him and 15 other North Koreans from a Bangkok detention center to another facility north of the capital.

The leader, who requested to be identified only by his surname, Ri, said in a phone call to The Associated Press in Seoul that he was being taken to the new detention center.

"This will be my last call," Ri said. His phone could not be contacted later.

A South Korean activist, the Rev. Chun Ki-won, who helps North Korean refugees seek asylum, claimed the Thai government was moving the refugees away as punishment for the hunger strike and accused Bangkok of preventing the refugees from seeking U.S. asylum.

Chun said the new detention center is about 10 hours' drive from Bangkok.

Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charungvat said he was not aware of upcoming talks between the refugees and American officials or whether the North Koreans had been relocated by immigration police, who oversee the detention facilities.

A Thai immigration official in Bangkok declined to comment, saying only the Foreign Ministry is authorized to speak about the case.

Ri and about two dozen North Korean defectors staying at the detention center and other places in Thailand arranged by South Korean missionaries and the U.S. government stopped eating on the evening of April 10, demanding they be sent to the United States.

Three of them, belonging to the family of a 36-year-old cancer patient, were granted their wish, leaving Thailand for the U.S. on Monday, according to Chun.

On Thursday evening, the others ended the hunger strike after an official at the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok promised to interview them, Ri said.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Michael Turner said the embassy does not comment on refugee asylum cases, citing privacy protection rules.

In recent years, thousands of North Koreans facing hunger and repression at home have made the long and risky journey across China to Southeast Asia, with many seeking eventual asylum in South Korea.

But some refugees hope to go to America. Washington began accepting North Koreans under a 2004 act that mandates assistance to refugees fleeing the communist regime.

http://www.newsmax.com/international/nk ... 89037.html

maybe someone should tell these morons that there is a global food crisis and they might want to conserve whatever energy giving food they can get.. if not please feel free to give any and all of your food to the African Nations

Ri and about two dozen North Korean defectors staying at the detention center and other places in Thailand arranged by South Korean missionaries and the U.S. government stopped eating on the evening of April 10, demanding they be sent to the United States.

They are using the D word....demand.

Why do they have to seek refugee asylum in the U.S.--they are free from the communists in Thailand and/or South Korea?