Beijing - A group of North Korean men, women and children seeking asylum helped one another climb a wall into the South Korean consulate grounds in Beijing on Monday, but most were caught by Chinese guards or fled.
Some were zapped with an electric cattle prod by a guard, television footage of the asylum attempt showed.
Eleven of 14 people who entered the compound at dawn were caught by the Chinese guards, but consulate staff escorted two women and a boy into the building, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said. Others did not make it into the compound.
Adults hoisted children up and over the wall, about three metres high, and then jumped into the compound themselves, the footage showed.
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Once over the wall, some were confronted by a guard who zapped them over and over with a cattle prod shooting sparks.
Some of the refugees huddling near the consulate inside the grounds unfurled a South Korean flag.
Some of the captured asylum seekers later broke free and fled, Yonhap said, adding it was not immediately clear how many people were in the custody of Chinese police.
South Korean embassy officials declined to comment.
The dramatic bid was the latest in a string of attempts by large numbers of people who have fled poverty and repression in the isolated North for the promise of a better life in the more affluent and open South.
A group of 20 North Koreans entered the same compound 10 days ago, where more than 100 others are waiting to be allowed travel to the South.
About 29 others entered a South Korean school in the Chinese capital on Friday, and more than 40 asylum seekers from North Korea are holed up in the Canadian embassy after breaking in late September.
Hundreds of asylum seekers from reclusive North Korea have broken into foreign embassies and consulates in China since 2002, hoping to secure passage to wealthier South Korea.
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