The U.S. Immigration Court in San Diego postponed a case review slated June 6 for two alleged North Korean defectors.

"The immigration court has delayed the deportation review until early August for unspecified reasons, so I have put off filing the applications for political asylum that I planned to make on their behalf on June 6," said Kim Yoo-jung, the lawyer representing the two on a pro bono basis.

But it is highly likely that the two defectors, identified only by their family names, Han and Kim, will win political asylum because the U.S. court accepted "North Korean" as their nationality in the subpoena, the lawyer said.

"I’ll gather more convincing material proving their nationality in the coming months," the lawyer said, adding that more than one year will be required for the two to get political asylum.

The 33-year-old Han and 31-year-old Kim were nabbed while illegally crossing the border from Mexico to the United States in March. Both promptly claimed they were North Korean defectors.

They were paroled from an illegal alien detention center in San Diego after each one posted bail of US$1,500 on May 31.

Han and Kim insist they fled from the North to China in 1995 to escape the dire economic situation in the communist country and decided to go to the United States for fear of deportation back to the North.

The alleged defectors are staying at a Korean church here.

It is the second time that North Koreans have been caught illegally entering the United States, following a 37-year-old North Korean woman, named Kim Sun-hee, who was released on parole May 8 from a detention center after asking for political asylum.