SEOUL, South Korea?Twenty-five North Korean asylum-seekers reached Seoul on Monday, ending a journey that began when they barged into the Spanish Embassy in China last week.

China extricated itself from a diplomatic dilemma by expelling the North Koreans to the Philippines, sending them back to likely punishment in North Korea.

The 14 adults and 11 children under age 20 landed at Incheon International Airport outside Seoul aboard a Korean Air plane that brought them from Manila.

It was one of the largest North Korean defections of recent years to South Korea.

After the North Koreans barged into the Spanish Embassy in Beijing on Thursday, China tried to avoid angering North Korea, its longtime ally. It called the asylum-seekers lawbreakers and flew them to a third country, not South Korea.

There was no immediate North Korean comment.