Thai court gives 94 N.Koreans suspended jail terms

PATHUM THANI, Thailand, Oct 26 (Reuters) A Thai court gave 94 North Koreans, including 18 children, caught in a police raid suspended three-month jail terms today for entering the country illegally but they will not be sent home.

They would be held in detention until sent to a third country, a public prosecutor told Reuters a month after 159 North Koreans went through a similar trial before being allowed to leave Thailand.

Their destination was not made public, bu it was probably South Korea, which almost always grants citizenship to asylum seekers from the North and has lent tacit support to fugitive groups in the past.

According to Seoul's Unification Ministry, 1,054 North Koreans made it to the South in the first seven months of 2006 -- an increase of nearly 60 per cent over the same period in 2005.

REUTERS DKB BS1621