South Korea fails to aid 9 North defectors--group

SEOUL, Jan 18 (Reuters) A South Korean consulate in China failed to protect nine North Koreans trying to defect to the South, an aid organisation said on Thursday, adding the nine had been arrested and were likely now to be in prison in the North.

Reports of the incident followed severe criticism of the South Korean Foreign Ministry at home in recent months, with allegations that it was neglecting to protect the safety of citizens and their families who had been abducted by the North.

There are more than 1,000 South Korean civilian abductees and prisoners captured during the 1950-1953 Korean War who are thought still to be alive in the North, Seoul has said.

The nine arrested in northeast China were relatives of three South Korean prisoners of war who had been held in the North since the end of the war, said the group, which specialises in helping defectors make their way to the South via China.

The potential defectors were left unprotected by consulate officials in Shenyang, who placed them in a motel, Representatives of the Abductees' Families said.

Chinese authorities raided the hotel shortly after their arrival and took the nine into custody, they said.

The Foreign Ministry decline to confirm details of the case but said it ''deeply regretted'' that the nine would not be coming to the South.

''This is not a question of criticising some diplomats for what they did. It's about whether the government has the will to protect its people,'' said Choi Sung-yong, an activist in Seoul with the humanitarian group.

People who try but fail to escape from the North -- usually via China -- often face severe punishment or even death after they are taken back, North Korean defectors and aid groups say.

In a separate incident, the ministry issued a apology this month after the same consulate in Shenyang initially gave the cold shoulder to a former South Korean fisherman abducted by the North 31 years ago when he sought help there in December.

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 percent from the same period in 2005.

REUTERS SHB RK1545