Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew announced Wednesday that 44 North Koreans seeking refuge inside Canada's embassy in Beijing have received passage to a safe third country.
The group had been holed up inside the Canadian embassy since Sep. 29, when they climbed the walls of the embassy grounds in broad daylight. The North Koreans had approached the embassy by pretending to be construction workers.
Hundreds of North Koreans fleeing the Stalinist regime in Pyongyang have entered China and tried to gain refuge on the grounds of various embassies in Beijing, despite efforts by Chinese authorities to discourage such asylum-seeking.
The North Korean refugees fear severe persecution if forced to return to their homeland. Canadian officials refused late Wednesday to say how the transfer of the North Koreans was arranged or to what country they were allowed to travel.
Pettigrew thanked China's government "for working with us to resolve this issue in a way that is consistent with our international obligations and in keeping with our humanitarian concerns."
Meanwhile, Canadian authorities have allowed the construction of a barrier around the Beijing embassy, Toronto's Globe and Mail reported.
Canada was one of a few countries that resisted Chinese attempts to block public access to Beijing embassies with perimeter fencing. After the 44 North Koreans reached the Canadian outpost, Chinese authorities further increased pressure for fortifications, the Globe and Mail said.
The paper described it as a green, metal fence, more than two meters high and erected several meters outside the compound wall. It stands on the sidewalk on Beijing city property around the entire perimeter of the Canadian embassy grounds. Chinese officials have also posted more guards outside the compound. Canada's policy had previously been to insist on an open physical environment at its embassy in Beijing.
"We have to adjust to changing circumstances to some extent," said Canadian ambassador Joseph Caron.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS