SEOUL: Some 50 North Korean orphans are hiding in China after fleeing their impoverished homeland, a South Korean legislator involved in a high-profile campaign to help such refugees said Thursday.

The children from an orphanage in the northeastern border city of Hyesan crossed the border on February 29, Park Sun-Young from the conservative opposition Liberty Forward Party told Yonhap news agency.

“Fortunately, I haven't heard that they were caught,” she said.

Park began a hunger strike last month outside China's embassy to denounce Beijing's repatriation of North Korean refugees. She ended her protest last Friday when she collapsed on the 11th day of her fast.

Of 30 children who fled the same orphanage in December, 20 were caught by North Korean border guards and severely beaten while the rest of them have yet to return to the North, she said.

Park said 48 North Koreans have been detained in China awaiting repatriation to the North. They face harsh punishment, even a death sentence, in their homeland, according to activists.

Seoul has repeatedly urged Beijing to treat fugitives from the North as refugees and not to repatriate them. China says they are economic migrants and not refugees deserving protection.

Amnesty International has also urged Beijing not to send North Korean escapees back, adding returnees are sent to labour camps where they are subjected to torture.

More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled their homeland since the 1950-1953 Korean War, the vast majority in recent years.

They typically escape on foot to China, hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in the South.