North Koreans arrested in Thailand for illegal entry
Ppolice have arrested four North Korean women for illegal entry into the kingdom, which is an increasingly popular destination for defectors from the communist state, police said Thursday.
The women, aged between 30 and 40, were detained Wednesday in northern Chiang Rai province, police said.
They were on a bus bound for the Thai capital and failed to show their ID cards during police security checks. The women told police through an interpreter that they had fled North Korea.
Chronic hunger and repression have driven a large number of North Koreans out of their homeland, and many of them have been arriving at Thailand's northern border after crossing through China, Laos and Myanmar.
But China has agreed with its ally North Korea to repatriate defectors as economic migrants, a policy strongly criticised by refugee aid groups.
The North Korean refugees often travel on to third countries such as Thailand in hopes of winning eventual resettlement in South Korea. Agence France Presse
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