North Korean women arrested in Thailand for illegal entry
A 40-year-old North Korean woman and her teenage daughter have been arrested in northern Thailand for illegal entry, police said Saturday.
The pair were arrested Friday in Chiang Rai province, 785 kilometres (490 miles) north of Bangkok, after failing to present ID documents to a police officer, they said. They told police through an interpreter that they had fled North Korea in search of a better life and entered Thailand via China and Myanmar, they said. Chronic food and energy shortages have driven a growing number of North Koreans from their impoverished homeland, and many of them have been arriving at Thailand's northern border after crossing through China, Laos and Burma. The number of North Koreans arrested for illegal entry into Thailand in 2006 surged to more than 400 from 50 in 2005. Agence France Presse
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