Three N. Koreans 'shot dead' during escape bid

North Korean troops shot dead three countrymen who were trying to cross the border into China, a Seoul activist said Tuesday, as Pyongyang tightens border controls after the death of leader Kim Jong-Il. Border guards last Saturday killed the men in their 40s who were crossing the Yalu river from the northern border city of Hyesan, said Do Hee-Youn, who helps refugees from the North. "People waiting at the Chinese side across the river to help the three defect saw the scene. The guards took with them the bodies which were lying on the ice," Do told AFP, citing sources in China's border county of Changbai. South Korea's intelligence service said it could not immediately confirm the reported shootings. About 23,000 North Koreans have fled repression or hunger in their homeland for South Korea since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years. They typically escape on foot via an increasingly porous border to neighbouring China, where they hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in South Korea. Activists say the North intensified patrols along its border to try to prevent defections in the wake of Kim's death on December 17. They fear a tougher crackdown during the politically sensitive transition. Do called it "very rare" for border guards immediately to open fire at refugees, saying the move was apparently linked to tightened security during the succession of power to Kim's son Jong-Un. "I'm afraid it will become much harder for North Koreans to defect for a while," he said, adding the North's authorities had spread word among people in the border city about the latest deaths. "They are trying to let people know that those trying to flee will be shot dead right away," said Do, citing sources in the North who communicate via mobile phones smuggled in from China.