Twenty-nine North Korean defectors and five of their South Korean helpers were arrested in China on July 15-17. They were nabbed in Qingdao, Shandong Province, and Kunming, Yunnan Province, on an established escape route to Southeast Asia, and face deportation, possible torture and execution in North Korea.

Kwon Na-hyun of an activist group for defectors on Tuesday said 20 defectors were arrested in Qingdao and nine others in Kunming. One of the helpers who were arrested is Na Su-hyun (39), himself a defector who now has a South Korean passport.

They have been transferred to a detention center in the border town of Tumen and face deportation to the North, Kwon added.

All defectors had stayed in a safe house in Qingdao, but some of them left for Kunming first. "Nine of them left for Kunming on July 14, because it would have been dangerous if all 29 defectors traveled together," Kwon said.

This is the largest-scale arrest of North Korean defectors and their helpers in China so far.