15 North Koreans escape to the South

SEOUL, South Korea -- Fifteen North Korean asylum-seekers who sought refuge in the South Korean consulate in Beijing arrived in South Korea early today. The North Koreans flew to Incheon International Airport west of Seoul after stopping in the Philippines. Government officials took the asylum-seekers for debriefing.

The South Korean Embassy in Beijing declined to say how or when they gained access to the consulate.

More than 100 North Koreans fleeing hunger and repression in their communist homeland have been permitted to travel to South Korea after seeking asylum in diplomatic compounds and foreign schools in the Chinese capital since March.

Thousands of other North Koreans are believed to be hiding in China, seeking a chance to come to South Korea.

Under a treaty between the two nations, China is obligated to return North Koreans found living illegally in its territory. But the Chinese government has not done so in cases that become public, possibly out of concern about international criticism.

More than 750 North Koreans have defected to South Korea this year, up from 583 for all of 2001.

Meanwhile, a former American ambassador to South Korea said on Wednesday that during a four-day visit to Pyongyang, a senior North Korean official had told him the 1994 Geneva framework agreement under which the North promised to stop developing nuclear weapons was "hanging by a thread."

The dire-sounding language is actually a step down from North Korea's earlier stance that the agreement had been "nullified."

The former ambassador, Donald Gregg, who arrived in Seoul on Tuesday after his visit to the North Korean capital, was describing his conversations with Deputy Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju.

Gregg said that the North Korean officials emphasized the need for a nonaggression agreement that did not have to be as complex as a formal peace treaty. "They would like the United States to give some assurance we do not intend to blow them out of the water," he said.

-- Information from the New York Times was used in this report.

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