SEOUL - A WOMAN fleeing from North Korea died this week after being detained in an immigration camp in Laos where two fellow refugees were in hospital, a South Korean foreign ministry official said on Friday.

The woman, identified by Yonhap news agency as Kim Kyung-Hee, 27, was pronounced dead on Monday because of 'excessive entero-haemorrhage' during medical treatment, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Two other defectors were in a stable condition in hospital, he said without giving details.

Yonhap quoted a South Korean missionary activist in Laos as saying that Ms Kim - who feared deportation - died suddenly while coughing up blood.

The other two attempted suicide by swallowing pieces of iron rather than be sent back, said Pastor Kim Hee-Tae, who helps North Korean refugees in the region.

The pastor told Yonhap the three had defected together through China. They travelled to South-east Asia in hopes of seeking asylum in South Korea but were captured near the Laotian border.

Authorities told them they should pay US$2,500 (S$3,621) in fines or face deportation to China, he said. China repatriates North Koreans under an agreement with Pyongyang and they can face harsh punishment in their homeland.

Extreme stress from the fear of forced deportation might have aggravated the woman's illness, the pastor said, adding the defectors had failed to secure the money.

'I was notified by the immigration office that the couple will be forcibly repatriated to China unless the fine is paid by Saturday,' the pastor was quoted by Yonhap as saying.

He said he had tried in vain to seek help from the South Korean embassy in Laos.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans refugees are believed to be hiding in China, from where some try to travel on to South-east Asian countries in the hope of eventual resettlement in South Korea.

More than 14,000 North Koreans have settled in South Korea since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the vast majority in recent years. -- AFP