Japan has begun negotiations with China to allow 24 North Korean asylum seekers who are holed up in the Japanese Embassy in Beijing to leave for South Korea later this year.
A Japanese Foreign Ministry official said Japan wants the North Koreans to leave in several small groups, rather than en masse, apparently out of concern that such a move could encourage other potential North Korean defectors to take refuge in Japanese facilities overseas.
The official said Japan also wants to keep the issue low-key to avoid provoking Pyongyang ahead of a third round of working-level talks on the abduction of Japanese nationals by the communist state.
On Sept. 1st, 29 North Koreans, including three children, dashed into a Japanese school in the Chinese capital, seeking political asylum. The group was shortly moved to the Japanese Embassy.
Five of the 29 were allowed to leave for a third country on their way to South Korea.