44 N. Koreans Allowed to Leave the Country

Forty-four North Koreans who spent three months in the Canadian Embassy have been allowed to leave the country, an embassy spokesman said.

The asylum seekers, who used ladders to scale the compound's spiked fence in September, were "recently released," Ian Burchett said. He would not say when they left or where they were going.

Most North Koreans who have sought asylum in embassies, schools and other foreign offices in China over the last three years have eventually headed for South Korea. They usually travel by way of a third country.