Beijing, Oct 06: South Korea has shut down the consular services at its embassy here due to a sudden rush of North Korean refugees seeking political asylum, diplomatic sources said today. "Our consular services have been shut down temporarily, we cannot provide consular services due to a lot of North Korean refugees inside the Consulate," a South Korean Embassy official said.
"They did not all come at one time, they have been coming continuously, some days 10 or more, some days only one or two," said the official. The closure means that the embassy will not be able to issue visas for South Korea to any foreign national seeking such documents, he said.
"The mission of our consulate is to issue visas and other documents to those who hope to go to South Korea, but there are too many North Korean defectors at the Consulate and we cannot do our work normally," the official said. He, however, refused to specify the exact number of refugees, or how many were women and children, saying the matter remained a "sensitive issue". Bureau Report