Eleven North Koreans seeking to defect to South Korea have been detained in Vietnam since Nov. 23 and are seeking help to avoid being repatriated, a South Korean activist group said Monday.
The eight women and three men were detained by border guards in northern Vietnam two days after crossing from China, and are being held in the city of Lang Son, the Seoul-based Justice for North Korea said in a statement.
Peter Jung, the head of the group, which supports North Korean asylum-seekers, said the would-be defectors had requested help from the South Korean Embassy in Hanoi, but he had not heard from them since Friday.
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