Five North Koreans have entered diplomatic missions in Beijing over the weekend - the latest in a string of attempts by North Korean asylum seekers to flee to South Korea.

Three of them, including a toddler, managed to enter the South Korean consulate in Beijing on Sunday, while another two entered the Canadian embassy on Saturday night, it was reported on Monday.

There have been 38 successful asylum bids in the last two months

The new arrivals bring to 10 the number of North Koreans currently holed up in diplomatic compounds in Beijing.

Over the last three months, at least 38 North Koreans have been allowed to go to South Korea after taking refuge in foreign embassies in Beijing.

But the Chinese Government is taking a much tougher line on refugees who have sought asylum at the South Korean embassy - perhaps fearing a strong reaction from the North Korean Government.

Negotiations

The Canadians say they are negotiating for the two men who climbed into their embassy to be allowed to leave China.

But officials at the South Korean embassy, sheltering two women, aged 24 and 28, and a two-year-old boy, are much less optimistic.

"Only God knows" when the eight North Koreans now sheltering in the South Korean mission will be allowed to leave, said a South Korean official.

China has in the past demanded the handover of North Koreans seeking refuge in South Korea's consulate, but Seoul has said the asylum seekers should have the final say on where they are sent.

China has a treaty with its ally North Korea which requires it to send them back to the hard-line Communist state.

But in recent, high-profile cases, China has preferred to let asylum seekers travel to Seoul via third countries.

Diplomatically sensitive

However correspondents say this latest case is particularly complicated because it will pressure China into choosing whether to offend North or South Korea.

High-profile North Korean escapes to South via China

June 2001 Family of seven who sheltered in UN office in Beijing March 2002 25 people who entered Spain's Beijing embassy May 2002 Five people from US and Canadian diplomatic sites May 2002 Five relatives taken by Chinese police from Japanese consulate

It also comes at a difficult time for South Korea, which had hoped to keep asylum issues out of the news as it co-hosts football's World Cup.

The last known case where a North Korean sought asylum in the South having entered a South Korean mission in China was in 1997.

That case, which involved North Korea's top Communist theorist and party secretary Hwang Jang-yop, took seven weeks of negotiating before he was allowed to travel to Seoul.

In recent years, tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled famine and repression to live in China.

Beijing has tried to stem the tide by increasing security around embassies and consulates, ringing the compounds with barbed wire and posting additional guards.