Japan's Kyodo News Agency says Cambodia may deport a group of seven North Korean asylum-seekers to their communist homeland despite their reported wish to be sent to South Korea.

Quoting a top Cambodian immigration official, the reports said Tuesday that the North Koreans have been in the custody of the immigration office since they arrived in the Southeast Asian country some ten days ago via China and Vietnam.

The news agency said the asylum-seekers had no passports nor any other documents authorizing their cross-border trip to Cambodia.

The reports quoted a Cambodian government official as saying that nothing has yet been decided on the fate of the group.

However, the news agency said that the North Koreans may be sent back to their Communist homeland, following Pyongyang's request through its embassy in Phnom Penh that they be repatriated to the North.