SEOUL, May 9 (UPI) -- North Korea is expected to react with fury to the United States' granting of refugee status to North Korean defectors, as it may prompt a refugee exodus from the communist country that could include members of the ruling elite, say South Korean analysts and activists.
They also predict North Korea will not rejoin the six-nation talks on its nuclear program in the near future, dashing South Korea's hopes of an early resolution to the protracted nuclear standoff.
Six North Korean refugees fled to the United States late last week, the first group accepted under a 2004 law designed to help refugees from the North.
The refugees, including four women who say they were victims of sexual slavery or forced marriages, arrived in the United States on Friday night via an undisclosed Southeast Asian nation, where they were sheltered in a U.S. embassy.
Another group of North Korean refugees is also likely to arrive shortly in the United States, according to media reports.
Seoul-based human rights groups, which have played a major role in helping the North Koreans' escape to the United States, said the refugees would probably be treated in the same way as those South Vietnamese who fled their country in the mid-1970s.
"The move is significant because it marks the first time that U.S. actions towards North Korean refugees have gone beyond lip service," said Chun Ki-won, a South Korean Christian minister helping North Korean asylum seekers.
Chun and other activists said more and more North Korean defectors are trying to find political asylum in the United States; South Korea has maintained a low-key position on the refugee issue for fear of creating friction with North Korea.
More than 100,000 North Korean asylum seekers are believed to be hiding in China and Russia in hopes of reaching South Korea or other nations for resettlement. According to Seoul's media survey, a number of North Korean defectors want to resettle in the United States.
Roughly 7,700 North Koreans have successfully escaped to South Korea since the Korean War ended in 1953. Most North Koreans so far have sought asylum in South Korea via China. In the wake of harsh crackdowns in China, however, more and more North Koreans have made their way to Southeast Asian countries.
The U.S. move comes after the Los Angeles Immigration Court approved asylum for a North Korean defector who had settled in South Korea after fleeing his communist homeland.
Analysts and activists said the U.S. acceptance of the North Korean refugees indicates the Bush administration has begun to undertake a more aggressive policy towards human rights abuses in North Korea.
North Korea has yet to respond to the United States' acceptance of the refugees, but is likely to criticize the Bush administration for seeking to topple its regime.
When the United States enacted the North Korean Human Rights Act in October 2004, North Korea vehemently criticized the bill, saying it is "full of anti-DPRK (North Korea) poisonous clauses," aimed at bringing down its communist system by encouraging mass defections of its residents.
Washington seeks to "isolate and strangle the DPRK by laying an international siege to it after charging it with nuclear weapons development and (to) topple its political system," the North said, vowing to boost the deterrent force to counter the United States.
The human rights bill, aimed at promoting human rights and freedom in North Korea, has paved the way for North Koreans to seek refugee status in the United States and allocates $4 million for expanding American radio broadcasts into the North to promote democracy and human rights.
"North Korea seems to consider the U.S. human rights pressure as the worst kind of measure, meant to cause a collapse of its system," said Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korea specialist at Dongguk University in Seoul. "The strategy is actually expected to erode the North Korean system."
Kim Kun-shik, a professor at Kyungnam University, south of Seoul, said North Korea would further stall the six-party nuclear talks in protest to the U.S. human rights pressure. "North Korea is highly unlikely to return to the six-nation nuclear talks in protest against the human rights pressure," he said.
The six-nation talks have been deadlocked since late last year, with North Korea refusing to return to the negotiating table until the United States lifts financial sanctions it imposed on entities suspected of laundering money and counterfeiting for the North.
