The Foreign Ministry says China is studying a plan that would allow North Koreans seeking asylum at Seoul's consulate in Beijing direct passage to South Korea.

A ministry official said Sunday that China had informed Seoul of the plan at a recent bilateral meeting on the issue of North Korean escapees being held in a detention center in Tumen, a town near the border with North Korea.

Under a bilateral agreement signed between South Korea and China in 2002, China has so far allowed North Korean asylum-seekers to travel to the South via a third country, including the Philippines and Singapore.