North Korean asylum seekers storm Beijing embassy

A group of 20 North Koreans who said they were fleeing persecution in their hard-line communist country rushed past Chinese guards and sought asylum today at Beijing’s Spanish embassy, threatening suicide if they were sent back.

The men, women and youngsters ran through the embassy’s front gate, past two armed Chinese guards. One struggled briefly with a guard who grabbed him, but broke free and ran with the others into the main embassy building.

‘‘We are now at the point of such desperation and live in such fear of persecution within North Korea that we have come to the decision to risk our lives for freedom rather than passively await our doom,’’ the group said in a statement.

Within minutes, dozens of armed green-uniformed Chinese guards converged on the compound. Spanish diplomats came out of the embassy building, talked to some of the guards, and then followed the asylum-seekers into the building. Chinese guards formed a cordon outside the compound, shooing away bystanders with shouts of ‘‘sorry, sorry’’ in Chinese and English.

The incident presented a dilemma for the Chinese government. China is a close ally of North Korea but has been criticised by human rights and aid groups for refusing to grant refugee status to North Koreans fleeing famine and repression.

China is bound by treaty with North Korea to repatriate fleeing North Koreans. Many have been sent back, but others have been able to live in hiding along China’s northeastern border with North Korea.

The group included six families and three individuals, according to a statement distributed by supporters who helped the North Koreans in their asylum bid. It said they totalled 25 people, but reporters saw only about 20.

The statement included a list of names, ages and home towns, but said many names were pseudonyms to avoid ‘‘dangerous repercussions to our loved ones who remain in North Korea’’.

‘‘Some of us carry poison on our person to commit suicide if the Chinese authorities should choose once again to send us back to North Korea,’’ said the printed-out statement, written in English.

There was no indication why the refugees chose the Spanish embassy. But the compound’s front gate is usually left open, in contrast to more heavily guarded embassies.

There were also individual statements in English from other members of the group, including a farmer, a former policeman, two orphaned 16-year-old girls and a miner.

One man, who said he was giving his correct full name, Choi Byong-sop, wrote that he was 52 and a former coal miner and one-time member of the North Korean Workers Party, the ruling party.

He said he fled to China in 1997 with his wife and three children but was caught and returned to North Korea, where guards beat and tortured him.

As a former party member, he wrote: ‘‘I would be very strictly persecuted and most likely executed if I am caught again. However, I am willing to risk my life for freedom in South Korea.’’

He added: ‘‘We want to live a decent life in freedom in South Korea. My first son wants to become a

Christian missionary. My daughter wants to be trained to be a pianist. My last son wants to be a soccer player in South Korea.’’

The group statement said that for many, this was at least the second attempt to use China to gain freedom. It said some had previously been caught by Chinese security officials and returned to North Korea, where ‘‘we endured months of detention ... that can only be described as atrocious.’’

Last June, a family of seven North Korean asylum seekers sought refuge in a United Nations office in Beijing. After four days, they were allowed to leave for South Korea via a circuitous route that took them to Singapore, then to Seoul via the Philippines.

Beijing was in the final weeks of a hard-fought bid for the 2008 Olympics and couldn’t afford to raise international wrath by sending the family back to near-certain punishment in North Korea.