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South Korea will maintain its policy of bringing in North Korean defectors in small groups due to security concerns and a shortage of accommodation, despite Thailand's request for Seoul to accept hundreds at a time, diplomats here said Wednesday.

Thailand has emerged as the most favored shelter for those who flee the impoverished North amid China's increased crackdown on them ahead of the Beijing Olympics. China regards them as economic migrants, not asylum seekers. On the other hand, the Thai government has been relatively lenient towards North Korean defectors from a humanitarian viewpoint.

Sources here said more than 2,500 North Korean defectors settled in South Korea last year alone and about half of them came via Thailand.

The rapid inflow of defectors has put the Thai authorities in a dilemma over a lack of facilities for the North Koreans as well as the possibility of damage to Bangkok's relations with Pyongyang, according to the sources.

The Southeast Asian nation reportedly has three facilities to accommodate North Korean defectors -- one in Bangkok and two in other cities, all of which are overcrowded.

In January, the Thai government formally asked South Korea to speed up the process of receiving those defectors.

"Thailand wants to hand over hundreds of defectors at a time," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

But South Korea favors a small-scale and low-profile operation which is safer, according to the official, who asked not to be named, apparently due to the sensitivity of the issue.

"The most important factor is the security of defectors," he added. "Furthermore, our capacity for accommodating North Korean defectors is also limited. There are administrative problems as well."

More than 13,000 North Korean defectors have arrived in the South since the two Koreas were divided at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

South Korea operates a rehabilitation center for them, named "Hanawon," south of Seoul. Hanawon can house roughly 400 people and the government is working to expand its capacity to 600 by the end of this year.

Some estimates put the number of North Korean defectors in Thai custody at 400 as of last month, down from 600 in December. South Korea has increased the weekly quota to be transferred into its territory to 75.

A group of more than 50 activists, meanwhile, staged a rally in front of the Foreign Ministry building in downtown Seoul on Wednesday afternoon, calling for South Korea's immediate accommodation of all the defectors in Thailand.


SEOUL, March 19 (Yonhap)