US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK690

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ICRC AND NORTH KOREAN ASYLUM SEEKER IN VIENTIANE

Identifier: 05BANGKOK690
Wikileaks: View 05BANGKOK690 at Wikileaks.org
Origin: Embassy Bangkok
Created: 2005-01-27 00:24:00
Classification: CONFIDENTIAL
Tags: ASEC PGOV PREF PREL KN KS TH North Korea
Redacted: This cable was not redacted by Wikileaks.
This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 000690 
 
SIPDIS 
 
GENEVA FOR RMA 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/24/2015 
TAGS: ASEC, PGOV, PREF, PREL, KN, KS, TH, North Korea (DPRK), LAOS, Asylum, Refugee 
SUBJECT: ICRC AND NORTH KOREAN ASYLUM SEEKER IN VIENTIANE 
 
REF: A. STATE 13599 B. BANGKOK 656 C. SEOUL 371 D. 
 
     VIENTIANE 107 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Robert Clarke, Reasons 1.4 (B,D) 
 
 
1. (C) Fred Grimm, the International Committee of the Red 
Cross (ICRC) Head of Regional Delegation, told Embassy 
Bangkok today that ICRC is not/not willing to issue a 
laissez-passer (LP) to North Korean asylum seeker An Kyong 
Su.  Grimm said that, after consultations with both the ICRC 
representative responsible for North Korea and ICRC's Geneva 
headquarters, ICRC's position was that it does not want to 
endanger its relationship with the Pyongyang government, 
which allows ICRC to conduct some humanitarian activities. 
 
2. (C)  Grimm further stated that no one in ICRC's offices in 
North Korea or Geneva had heard about the case of the North 
Korean refugee at the U.S. Consulate in Vladivostok who was 
issued an ICRC LP.  Grimm then noted that in that case, based 
on his understanding of it from our account, two conditions 
were present that are not yet present for the Vientiane case. 
 First, UNHCR had made a direct appeal for assistance to 
ICRC.  Second, the ROKG had given assurances that the 
individual would be allowed to enter the ROK.  Grimm seemed 
to imply that if these conditions were met, ICRC might 
revisit the request to issue a LP for An.  (Comment: 
Subsequent to this conversation, we learned that the ROK has 
agreed to the second condition provided an ROK security 
interview of An is successful.  End Comment.) 
BOYCE 

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