Japan and China have been locked in a diplomatic row over an incident May 8 in which Chinese police guards seized and removed five North Korean asylum seekers from the compound of the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, northeastern China. On Wednesday, however, it appeared that concerns over the fate of those North Koreans were being allayed because Tokyo and Beijing were trying to strike a compromise on a plan to send the asylum-seekers to the destination of their choice via a third country.

There is no question that Chinese authorities violated Japanese sovereignty. Unauthorized entry by host-nation agents into a foreign diplomatic mission is a violation of international law. It is also clear, however, that Japanese diplomats lacked a proper sense of sovereignty and a clear commitment to refugee protection, thus allowing Chinese police to arrest the North Korean defectors. And Tokyo showed itself to be ill-prepared for the possible diplomatic and security consequences of a looming refugee crisis on the Korean Peninsula.

Japan had rightly demanded the immediate release of all five North Koreans -- two men, two women and a small child. But China spurned the demand, saying that the Chinese guards had been given permission to enter. That claim was flatly rejected by Tokyo.