South Korea is still talking to China to try to stop it repatriating a group of North Korean refugees, Seoul's foreign ministry said Wednesday.

It denied a report by the Chosun Ilbo newspaper that Beijing has already told Seoul it would send back the group, whose members were arrested in the northeastern Chinese city of Shenyang last month.

China normally returns fugitives from isolated North Korea even though they could face harsh punishment in their homeland for escaping. The policy is denounced by rights groups, who say they should get refugee status.

South Korea's foreign ministry said China had not told Seoul that it would return this particular group.

"The (South's) government continues consulting with China in order to prevent the North Koreans from being repatriated to the North," it said in a statement.

The size of the group was unclear. Chosun Ilbo said there were 20, after a figure of 35 was given by activists last week. The ministry did not give an exact number.

Seoul sent a senior foreign ministry official on an urgent mission last week to try to dissuade China from returning the group.

A South Korean passport-holder who was arrested along with them has been released and returned home Monday.

She was one of two former refugees arrested in China while trying to help fugitives, according to activists.

More than 21,700 North Koreans in total have fled their impoverished and hunger-stricken homeland for South Korea since the 1950-1953 war, the vast majority in recent years.

They typically escape on foot to China, hide out and then travel to a third country to seek resettlement in the South.