GENEVA (Reuters) - China is believed to have returned nine young North Korean defectors to their homeland, where they face possible severe punishment or even execution, the United Nations said on Friday. The U.N. human rights office as well as the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR voiced concern for the fate of the group, believed to all be orphans, who were first returned by Laotian police to China this week after crossing that border.

SEOUL, May 29 (Yonhap) -- The amount of land owned by foreigners grew slightly from a year earlier in the first quarter, the government said Wednesday. As of the end of March, the amount of land owned by foreign investors or companies came to 226.7 million square meters, up 0.21 percent from a year earlier, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

SEOUL, May 24 (Yonhap) -- South Korea again called on North Korea Friday to repay millions of dollars in loans provided in the form of food since 2000, the Unification Ministry said. The impoverished North missed the June 7, 2012 deadline to repay South Korea US$5.83 million in the first installment of the $724 million food loan extended to the North in rice and corn. The latest call is the South's fifth demand made on the North to repay its debt.

North Korea has released 16 Chinese fishermen and their boat, Chinese state-run media said Tuesday, after reports that armed assailants had taken the sailors hostage and demanded a ransom. "All the fishermen with the boat are safe on their way back," China's Xinhua news agency said, citing a Chinese embassy official in Pyongyang it said had heard the news from the shipowner. Xinhua said the fishermen had been detained "by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea side", using the North's official name, and without giving further details.