Fradulent asylum-seekers would get their state subsidies cut or receive criminal punishment, the unification ministry warned.

Spokesman Kim Ho-Nyoun said some North Korean refugees who resettled in South Korea had been trying to seek asylum in 'a European state' by concealing the fact that they have settled here.

'It is not a good thing because it could cause a dispute between the countries, and that's why we are taking countermeasures,' the spokesman said.

The Seoul government could reduce the subsidy, including living expenses for refugees, by up to half if they breached relevant laws.

The false asylum is usually motivated by various benefits awarded to refugees, the spokesman said, declining to specify the number of such cases or identify the European country involved.

Seoul's foreign ministry last month said it was helping authorities in London identify more than 400 people who were seeking asylum in Britain by claiming to be 'genuine' North Korean defectors.

London was sending their fingerprints and asking Seoul to check whether any of them had already been granted permission to live in South Korea.

Some 14,180 North Koreans have escaped their hardline communist state and resettled in South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 war. Seoul has a constitutional obligation to accept them.

Of these, some 2,700 are believed to have left for other countries, Chun Ki-Won, a Christian pastor, has said.

The Seoul government provides subsidies and training to help the northerners adapt to a new life but some complain of unfair treatment or job discrimination. -- AFP