Five N Korean refugees nabbed on Laos-Thai border

CHIANG SAEN, Thailand, May 8 (Reuters) Five North Korean women were arrested on the Thai-Lao border today, the latest in a growing stream of refugees using Thailand as a route from their communist homeland to South Korea.

The women, aged between 19 and 53, were caught in the Thai border town of Chiang Saen by the navy and marine police after crossing the Mekong by speedboat from Laos, police said.

They are due to be charged with illegal entry in court tomorrow.

Other North Korean refugees who have entered Thailand illegally have been fined 2,000 baht, or jailed for 10 days if they are unable to pay.

Chiang Saen, a notorious ''Golden Triangle'' drug smuggling border town, is seeing a rising number of North Korea refugees as it is among the least difficult routes to enter Thailand, police chief Surachai Tainchai told Reuters.

''We foresee a growing number of North Korean refugees coming to Chiang Saen this year,'' he told Reuters.

Until today, the number of North Korean defectors arrested in Chiang Saen alone this year stood at 136, compared with 157 for the whole of 2006 and 94 in 2005, Surachai said.

The numbers are becoming a headache for authorities in Bangkok, where a backlog of North Koreans waiting to obtain entry permits to South Korea is growing.

Last month, around 400 North Korean refugees at a Thai immigration detention centre in Bangkok staged a three-day hunger strike in protest at delays in the immigration process.

REUTERS PY RK1834