ICRC AND NORTH KOREAN ASYLUM SEEKER IN VIENTIANE

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 DPRK LAOS
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