MOSCOW -- The Russian government Saturday extended the deadline for former East German leader Erich Honecker to the leave the country after North Korea -- one of last bastions of communism -- agreed to accept him, Soviet news agencies said.
Russian Justice Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said he granted a three-day extension after receiving the North Korean offer to admit Honecker for medical treatment, although he said Honecker would be forced out if he does not leave by Monday.
A North Korean Embassy official in Moscow confirmed his government had agreed to let Honecker and his wife, Margot, into North Korea for medical treatment, but added, 'There was no request for a political asylum. If Mr. Honecker asks for asylum we will consider this and give some answer, but by this moment there hasn't been such a request from him.'
Still, Margot Honecker said in an interview that she and her husband were not ill.
'We have no complaints about our health,' she said. 'Quite the opposite, everything is fine in this respect. However, the problems that have arisen oppress us.'
Honecker has been holed up since Wednesday in the Chilean Embassy in Moscow, trying to avoid extradition to Germany on murder charges relating to the killings of East German citizens who tried to flee the former Soviet bloc state.
North Korea's decision to accept Honecker could end a political stalemate that has threatened to split the Chilean government, and already has placed a new division between Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and Russian President Boris Yeltsin.
In Santiago, Chilean Vice Minister of Foreign Relations Edmundo Vargas remained torn on the issue, as he presided over a meeting of experts on international law trying to help him decide the matter.
Vargas called the matter 'a delicate problem' as his government faced pressure from at home and abroad both by those demanding Honecker be given asylum in Chile and those insisting he be turned over to Germany.
Vargas also said Cuba had refused to give asylum to Honecker.
Chilean officials said they had been under intense pressure from Germany to turn over Honecker, adding that Germany's ambassador to Chile had met with the Foreign Relations Ministry at least twice in the past 24 hours.
The German ambassador, Wiegand Pabsch, said he understood that Honecker wanted to spend Christmas in Chile with his family, but added, 'there were many Germans who wanted to do the same thing' while Honecker blocked their travel for 40 years. Many died trying to cross the Berlin Wall for just such a reason, Pabsch said.
Chilean radio and television said conservative German newspapers were reporting Chilean leftists owed Honecker a debt, because his administration supplied guerrillas with arms during the dictatorship of Chilean leader Gen. Augusto Pinochet.
The president of the Chilean Socialist Party, Senator Ricardo Nunez, sent a letter to Chilean President Patricio Aylwin asking that Honecker be given asylum.
Minister of the Interior Enrique Krauss said Honecker would remain a guest in the Moscow embassy until a 'satisfactory solution' was reached to 'this dramatic and completely personal situation.'
Yeltsin's Russian government wants to extradite Honecker to Germany to stand trial on murder charges, but it was Soviet troops who whisked Honecker out of East Germany to Moscow as his regime collapse, and Gorbachev has let him stay.
Russia last week ordered Honecker to leave Russian territory by midnight Friday, and Honecker responded quickly by taking refuge, along with his wife, in the Chilean Embassy ambassador's quarters.
But Chile, sensitive about upsetting good relations with Germany, refused to grant Honecker permanent political asylum, eeven though one of Honecker's daughters lives in the country.
However, Honecker and Chile's socialist ambassador to the Soviet Union, Clodomiro Almeyda, have been friends ever since Almeyda was granted asylum in Honecker's East Germany after a right-wing coup toppled Chile's Marxist government, including Almeyda, then a member of Chile's Cabinet.
