This is either a motivated defector or an attempted infiltration:
South Korea’s military is scrutinizing how a presumed North Korean defector managed to get through a seaside drain and into the country Tuesday, Feb. 16, 2021.
South Korea’s military is scrutinizing how a presumed North Korean defector managed to get through a seaside drain and into the country early Tuesday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The man, intercepted at 7:20 a.m. by South Korean troops inside the civilian control line just south of the Demilitarized Zone, apparently swam some part of the way from North Korea in a dive suit before passing through a drain south of the border, according to a translated, text-message update from the joint chiefs Wednesday.
“The person is assumed to have gone up a beach in the vicinity of the Unification Observatory,” south of an observation post, wearing the dive suit and fins, “and then passed through a drain under iron fences along the coast,” the message said.
The incident occurred in the northeastern Gangwon province, a joint chiefs spokesman said. The site description matches the Goseong Unification Observatory near the DMZ on South Korea’s eastern coast. Another defector crossed there in early November.
You can read more at the link, but reportedly the South Korean military unit did not take appropriate action when security cameras spotted the defector.
In the annals of great escapes, vaulting the barbed wire, heavily-surveilled fence that separates the mined no-man’s land between North and South Korea would surely feature strongly.
According to the South Korean media this week, a defector who evaded security in one of the most dangerous border crossings of the world on November 3 was a former gymnast who managed to swing himself over the imposing barricades, reportedly without triggering key sensors.
The authorities vowed to investigate why high-tech security systems did not work. “We will look into why the sensors did not ring and make sure they operate properly,” an official told Yonhap news agency.
The man, reported to be wearing blue civilian clothes and in his twenties, later surrendered after a manhunt by the South Korean military units who discovered a breach of the fence. He was detained without incident just under a mile south of the fence and has asked for asylum.
There is an interesting interview in the Korea Times with one of the North Korean restaurant workers that defected to South Korea back in 2016 I recommend everyone read:
North Korean restaurant workers that defected.
The big question that so many have been asking: Did everyone want to escape?
A: It seems like a clear question, but the answer isn’t clear. Not all employees working at the Chinese restaurant wanted to come to South Korea.
The context is that the work in China was tougher than we had expected. We had good situations in North Korea, so we were often openly wondering why we were working so hard; it was not as golden as it had been presented to us in North Korea. Therefore, most of us agreed to seek better working conditions in a different country.
We were not ignorant about the outside world. When I was in North Korea, I certainly knew about the possibility of escaping to South Korea, and from what I knew about the others, they did too. But we all had good lives in North Korea; why should we go to South Korea?
In discussing seeking better working conditions, about six or seven employees left. That group took taxis to the North Korean embassy to make it clear they were not participating in an escape.
This is the most bizarre North Korean defector story I have read. This could be dramatized into a movie plot:
South Korea deported two North Koreans back to the communist nation after learning that they killed 16 fellow crew members on their fishing boat and fled to the South, the unification ministry said Thursday.
The two in their 20s were sent back to the North at around 3:10 p.m. through the truce village of Panmunjom, five days after they were captured near the Northern Limit Line sea border in the East Sea on Saturday, according to the ministry.
It marks the South’s first deportation of North Koreans through Panmunjom.
“We decided to deport them after determining that accepting them to our society could pose a threat to the lives and safety of our people and that such criminals cannot be recognized as refugees under international law,” Lee Sang-min, the ministry’s spokesperson, said at a press briefing.
The government also plans to send back the fishing boat of the North Koreans, a ministry official said.
Officials said that it took a couple of days for the South’s Navy to seize the North Koreans as they attempted to run away after crossing into the South.
During an investigation, the North Koreans confessed that they and another crew member first killed the captain of the fishing boat in late October out of anger over his harsh treatment before killing the other protesting crew members one by one later, according to officials.
They were also quoted as saying that all the bodies were dumped overboard.
They initially intended to return to North Korea and seek shelter. When the boat arrived at a North Korean port on its east coast, however, one was captured by local police, causing the other two to get scared and flee, the official said.
I think the most blame should be put on the mother who did not ask anyone for help though I would not be surprised if she was suffering from depression that contributed to her death:
Han Sung-ok has the recognition in death she never received in life
Han Sung-ok, 42, seemed determined to pick through nearly every lettuce on the market stand. She turned each one over and examined it while her six-year-old son clambered on the fence nearby.
The vegetable seller in the southern Seoul suburb looked on, annoyed. This was one picky customer and she didn’t even buy a lot of vegetables – only one or two items for as little as she could pay. On this occasion it was a lettuce for 500 won (about $0.40; £0.33).
Uttering only a few words, Han handed over her money and left with her son.
Just a few weeks later, both were dead.
Having fled food shortages in her native North Korea and dreaming of a new life, Han and her son are believed to have starved to death in one of the wealthiest cities in Asia. Their bodies lay undiscovered for two months until someone came to read the water meter and noticed a bad smell.
Mother and son were found apart on the floor. The only food in their tiny rented apartment was a bag of red pepper chilli flakes.
You can read the whole thing at the link, but she definitely had a hard life and trouble adapting to South Korean culture. People in the government probably should have done more to check on her welfare, but ultimately if she would have reached out to defector organizations or even a local church she could have gotten help instead of starving to death.
The Imjin River near South Korea’s border city of Paju (Yonhap)
A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea in a midnight river crossing in the border area known as the Demilitarized Zone, South Korea’s military said Thursday.
The defection comes at a sensitive time. Efforts by Seoul to improve relations between the two Koreas have been stymied amid stalled U.S.-North Korean nuclear talks.
The soldier was spotted via a thermal observation device in the Imjin River at about 11:38 p.m. Wednesday after crossing a central section of the Military Demarcation Line that divides the peninsula, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The river was swollen from rainy weather, making it difficult for local troops to determine the object in the river was a person until the soldier emerged from the water just before midnight, officials told reporters at a briefing.
The local military unit then sent a team and took the individual safely into custody, they said, adding that no unusual North Korean military movements were detected in the area.
“The man is an active-duty soldier who expressed his desire to defect to the South,” officials said. “Related procedures are underway.”
You can read more at the link, but that is quite a swim getting across the Imjim River during monsoon season. According to Yonhap this was the first defection across the Imjim River since 2010.
Three of four North Korean sailors are photographed on their boat at Samcheok Harbor in Gangwon on June 15. Their clothes were clean and well-pressed, while bags containing food can be seen on the vessel. [NEWS1]
Mystery continues to shroud the defection of two North Korean sailors earlier this month after their wooden boat entered a South Korean harbor completely undetected, which set off a scandal over the lack of alertness by the South’s military.
Jeon Dong-jin, a South Korean fisherman who saw the North Korean boat enter Samcheok Harbor in Gangwon on June 15 told the JoongAng Ilbo on Wednesday that he was first filled with curiosity at seeing North Koreans for the first time, but soon became afraid.
“It reminded me of the time an armed North Korean squad infiltrated Gangneung in 1996,” he said, in reference to an incident in which 26 North Korean reconnaissance agents covertly landed near Gangneung, Gangwon, on a submarine but were hunted down by the South Korean army after being spotted. In the ensuing series of firefights that lasted from September to November that year, 12 South Korean soldiers and four civilians were killed, as well as 24 of the North’s agents.
“If the North Koreans on the wooden dinghy had been armed agents, we would have all been killed,” said Jeon.
Four North Koreans were on the boat at sea for six days – four in South Korean waters – until it moored at Samcheok. The first person to report the North Koreans did not belong to the military, but was instead a resident of the harbor city. After questioning, two of the crew defected to the South, while the other two returned to the North through the border village of Panmunjom on June 18.
Many residents of the city are upset with the military’s inability to detect the boat’s infiltration.
“In their words, [the military] said they were closely monitoring the [maritime border] with cutting edge technology, but in reality they did nothing while the dinghy entered the harbor,” said one resident, Jang Hyung-baek. “I can’t help but think we were tricked.”
According to Captain Jeon, Samcheok residents remain particularly dubious about the claim that the North Korean sailors had been marooned on their vessel for almost a week.
“Except for one of them, who looked like he was deliberately growing a beard, the North Koreans were clean-shaven,” he said. “I’ve never heard of a case where people set adrift at sea shave themselves.”
You can read more at the link, but just looking at how they are dressed in the picture indicates to me that this was a failed spy operation. They are clearly dressed to try and blend in with the ROK population, not as fishermen. The Moon administration will definitely want to continue to claim these are fishermen in order not to spoil the so called reconciliation mood that is going on right now.
I do find it interesting that the ROK repatriated two of the North Koreans right away while the other two stayed. If they were on a spy mission and were compromised and it is interesting that two of the spies took the chance to defect instead of going back to North Korea.
I hope Ms. Shin understands that peace is not going to allow her to go home to North Korea with out repercussions. As long as the Kim regime remains in place, defectors will never be welcomed back with open arms:
North Korean defector Shin Eun Ha, center, cries after a limousine carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un passes by her near a Hanoi hotel where Kim is staying, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2019, in Hanoi, Vietnam. Nam Hee Seok, a South Korean TV talk show on North Korea, right, who is patting the back of Shin, who is a regular guest on the program. On left is another North Korean defector who appears on the program. Shin and another North Korean defector have flown to Hanoi to wish for progress during the second summit between their former leader Kim Jong Un and Trump. (AP Photo Kim Hyung-jin)
A tearful North Korean defector shouted “Please, let me go back home!” as a black limousine carrying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un passed by her in Hanoi on Tuesday. Shin Eun Ha is one of two North Korean defectors who flew to Vietnam to wish for progress during a second summit between Kim and U.S. President Donald Trump this week. They joined a crowd gathered near a Hanoi hotel where Kim is staying. Shin said she hopes the summit will help achieve peace so she can return to her hometown of Musan, which she fled in 2003. “For defectors, North Korea isn’t a country of hatred but a place that we are desperate to go back to even in our dreams,” Shin told The Associated Press. “I hope to see a day when we can go back to North Korea by taking a train like Kim Jong Un used to come here.” Later Tuesday, when Kim’s limousine left his hotel, escorted by motorcycle outriders, Shin cried and shouted repeatedly, “Please, let me go home.” “I don’t understand why we should live while missing our hometown,” Shin said. She and her fellow defector came as part of a popular South Korean TV program featuring North Korean defectors. Shin, a 30-year-old nurse in Seoul, has been a regular guest on the program, titled “Now On My Way to Meet You.”
Here is an update on the North Korean soldier defector who was shot while fleeing across the JSA to defect to the South. His story is very similar to other defectors who are surprised how hard one has to work in South Korea to earn money:
North Korean defector Oh Chong-song, whose bold dash across the heavily armed border in November last year made global headlines, has been struggling in South Korea since he was released from hospital.
“I took a job as a construction worker to feed myself,” Oh (not his real name) told the Chosun Ilbo Wednesday. “I experienced how hard it is to make money in the South.” Oh left Hanawon, a halfway house that helps North Korean defectors adjust to life in South Korea, in June after a long hospital stay to treat his many gunshot wounds and clear him of a mass of parasites in his stomach.
He now lives in Seoul. “I couldn’t work too long on the construction site due to my bad back, and I now work part-time at a social enterprise,” he said.
Oh denied a media report that he bought two cars and ended up selling them after running out of money. “That’s not true,” he said. “What I was given when I left Hanawon was W4 million in settlement support money and am entitled to live in public rental housing,” he said. “I didn’t have much money left after I bought furniture and a refrigerator (US$1=W1,130).”
Oh now looks no different than many young South Korean men in their 20s. He is slender and around 177 cm tall. Dressed in a navy-blue suit and white shirt, he had also dyed his hair light brown. Because he was born and raised in Kaesong close to the inter-Korean border, he does not have a distinct North Korean accent.
Oh insisted he had been misquoted in an interview with Japan’s Sankei Shimbun last weekend. The right-wing Japanese newspaper stirred up controversy by quoting Oh as saying that the South Korean military is a joke.
“I was misquoted and what I said was lost in translation,” he claimed Wednesday. “I watched video footage of South Korean soldiers crawling to save me,” he added, raising his voice as his emotions ran high. “I served in the North Korean military and do not know much about South Korean military life. You serve 10 years in the North Korean military and two years in the South Korean military, and all I said was it must be easier in the South.”
“But what I was quoted as saying made it sound like I laughed at the South Korean military.” Oh claimed the Sankei sent him a message apologizing for mistakes by the interpreter. [Chosun Ilbo]
You can read more at the link, but apparently there is a lot of disinformation being put out about him. I would not be surprised if the disinformation campaign against him is a coordinated effort by ROK leftists to discredit him as much as possible.
