Thailand says North Korean refugees end hunger strike

BANGKOK, Apr 26 (Reuters) A hunger strike by more than 100 North Korean refugees at a Bangkok immigration detention centre is over, the Thai Foreign Ministry said today.

''Everything has ended,'' Foreign Ministry Spokesman Tharit Charungvat said, without giving further details of a hunger strike Thai immigration police had denied was happening.

But Peter Jung of the Seoul-based Justice for North Korea group said the refugees were still rejecting food offered to them by Thai immigration officials who arrived with cameras, apparently to take pictures of them eating.

Three of the protesters, who launched the strike on Tuesday to protest against a delay in sending them to South Korea, were taken away for treatment after they fainted when officials threatened to send them back to North Korea, Jung said.

The Thai immigration police chief was not available for immediate comment.

No one has offered an explanation for the delay in sending the 400 North Koreans detained in Bangkok to South Korea.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said the North Koreans included 300 women crammed into one 120 square metre cell.

With hot season temperatures nearing 40 degrees centigrade in Bangkok, the conditions were harsh.

''The women lie head to toe, sleeping like cord wood. They have a lot of fans outside their cell, but it's extremely hot,'' McKinsey said.

''They are uninvited guests whom we are doing the best we can to take care of,'' Tharit said.

Most North Korean refugees cross the border into China and then seek asylum -- via a third country -- in South Korea, where they are almost always granted citizenship.

REUTERS AM RK1015