UNHCR to visit China for N.Korean refugee talks

GENEVA, Mar 17 (Reuters) The head of the United Nations refugee agency Antonio Guterres will visit Beijing next week for talks including on the status of North Korean migrants in China, the UN said today.

Hundreds of thousands of North Koreans are believed to be hiding in northeast China after fleeing hunger, poverty and repression in their country.

During his visit to China, the first by a High Commissioner for Refugees in nearly 10 years, Guterres will press the UN view that the North Koreans should not be considered strictly illegal economic migrants as Beijing attests.

''We have not had access to them and we believe that some of them would be refugees,'' UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said of the North Koreans. ''That will be on the agenda,'' he said.

China and North Korea share a 1,400-km border.

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