N. Korea executes 15 for illegal border crossing, group says (Roundup)

Mar 5, 2008, 13:11 GMT

Beijing/Seoul - North Korea has executed 15 people who were accused of entering China or attempting to cross the border illegally, a South Korean aid group for North Korean refugees said on Wednesday.

The public executions of 13 women and two men took place on February 20 in the north-eastern border town of Onseong and were witnessed by shocked residents of the town's Juwongu district, Erica Kang of Good Friends told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa by telephone.

Local sources told Good Friends that the executions were aimed at deterring more people from attempting to cross North Korea's 1,300-kilometre border with China this spring.

Different groups estimate that between 50,000 and 300,000 North Korean refugees have crossed the border from their impoverished nation and are living in China.

The Chinese government refuses to recognize them as refugees, categorizing them as illegal migrants, but has allowed dozens of North Koreans to leave for third countries after they entered diplomatic premises in China.

In previous years, China has repatriated many North Koreans who were caught without official documents or arrested for crime.

It sent troops to replace armed police along its border with North Korea in late 2003, in an apparent response to growing cross-border crime and an influx of North Korean refugees.

China has reportedly stepped up border patrols this year as part of a broad effort to avoid potential embarrassment during the Olympic Games in Beijing this August, Kang said.

'And that's why there aren't many North Korean refugees these days,' Kang said.

'This year it's almost impossible to go across the border,' she said.

Kang said Good Friends had written a brief report on the Onseong executions in its Korean-language newsletter this week.