Six refugees from North Korea, including women who were trafficked in China, arrived in the United States at the weekend to become the first North Koreans to be given asylum in America, activists said.
The four women and two men who arrived under tight secrecy from an unnamed Southeast Asian country included several women who were "trafficked, drugged and kidnapped or sold to farmers as a second wives," said an activist familiar with the cases.
They are the first North Koreans to be granted asylum in the United States under a 2004 US law aimed at promoting human rights in the isolated North through broadcasts and refugee assistance.
Activists welcomed the defection as a long-awaited boost in the campaign to help thousands of refugees from the Communist state who live precariously in China and neighbouring states.
One activist, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the exodus and to protect the refugees' families from possible North Korean reprisals, said the group landed in the United States late on Friday.
The six were being kept in a secret location.
"This is an extremely exciting development and we are hopeful they are the first of many others," said Adrian Hong, head of Liberty in North Korea, or LiNK, a grass-roots advocacy group which raises funds and runs shelters for refugees in China.
"These refugees are among the most vulnerable people in the world right now," Hong said by telephone.
LiNK, which had no direct role in the weekend passage to the United States of the six refugees, had joined US lawmakers and church groups in pressing the US government to implement the North Korea Human Rights Act, which became law in October 2004.
The State Department declined to comment on the six refugees or on possible future arrivals from North Korea, citing a policy of not commenting on individual asylum cases. A spokesman at the State Department said the United States is committed to helping North Koreans under the legislation.
Experts say as many as 100,000 mostly women and children are hiding in China after fleeing impoverished North Korea, where famine claimed an estimated one million or more lives in the late 1990s.
The activist familiar with the case said secrecy was necessary to retain the co-operation of Southeast Asian transit countries and to avoid triggering crackdowns on asylum seekers by China, which views the North Koreans as economic migrants.
"And North Korea does not treat families of refugees very well," the source added.
North Korea remains plagued by food shortages and is isolated internationally over its nuclear arms programs. Last year, US financial authorities slapped sanctions on the North for counterfeiting of American currency and money laundering.
Media reports in South Korea said the six refugees were among many North Koreans gathered in US diplomatic missions in Southeast Asia after making perilous trips through China.
The reports said most were seeking to settle in South Korea, which has taken in thousands of North Koreans in the past five years but favours economic engagement with the North over confronting the Pyongyang government over human rights.
The North Korea Human Rights Act set aside $24 million a year for activities including the resettling of North Korean refugees from third countries and the broadcasting of outside news into one of the world's most closed societies.
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