The defectors, two women and a man, said they feared for their safety if they were sent back to their homeland and wanted to seek asylum in South Korea or a third country.

Police were conducting a routine inspection on a bus at a checkpoint in Muang district when they found three foreigners who could not speak any Thai or English and failed to produce their passports.

Unable to communicate with them, police asked a Thai, Sorasak Jaima, who used to work in South Korea, to interpret.

They told Sorasak that they were North Koreans who had escaped through China, Laos and Burma and were heading to Bangkok to seek ways to travel to South Korea or a third country.

The Nation