Six people claiming to be North Korean asylum-seekers are demanding safe passage to South Korea after dashing into a German government-run school in Beijing.

The five men and one woman were confirmed to have entered the school by scaling its wall at around 5:20 a.m., Korean time, Tuesday morning. The school is about a five-minute drive from the South Korean Embassy.

Among the six people is a man who entered the same school in February, whose demand for repatriation to South Korea was rejected because he could not confirm his identity as a North Korean escapee. The 34-year-old man identified by the pseudonym, Yun Ung-joo, reportedly sneaked into his home in North Korea and escaped back to China in May with his identification card with photos.

The German Embassy plans to start talks with Chinese authorities to discuss the matter.

For the past two years, China has allowed around 200 North Korean asylum-seekers to travel to Seoul via third countries, including the Philippines.

Some 300,000 North Koreans are reportedly residing in China illegally after fleeing their famine-stricken homeland.