Unknown Person Successfully Infiltrates the DMZ into North Korea
It will be interesting to see if North Korea makes a showcase of whoever this person is that defected. If they don’t that might be an indication this is a returning spy:
South Korea’s military announced Sunday an unidentified person crossed the eastern inter-Korean land border into North Korea the previous night despite its eleventh-hour efforts to stop the move.
The person was spotted moving into the North across the Military Demarcation Line at around 10:40 p.m. on Saturday, some 80 minutes after being detected by surveillance equipment installed on the heavily fortified border, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
The JCS has yet to identify the person, with an investigation under way, its officials said.
After first detecting the person in the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas at around 9:20 p.m., the military authorities sent troops to the scene to capture the person but failed, according to the JCS.
“Due to various geographical conditions, including the mountain terrain, we failed (to capture the person),” a JCS official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
In a fact-finding process later, the authorities used monitoring equipment to find the person breaking through the barbed-wire fence to enter the DMZ at around 6:40 p.m. — an indication they remained unaware of the border breach for nearly three hours.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link, but DMZ violations that are detected hours afterwards has been ongoing issue for the ROK military which has relied more on technology than man power in recent years. However, if the people responsible for monitoring the technology are busy playing video games instead, the technology really doesn’t matter then.
ROK Army fails again.
It wasn’t me! I have proof!
GI, don’t be hatin’ on the playa’… be hatin’ on the lazy SOB who trained the treasonous wretch… and should have been making periodic and unannounced spot checks…
It’s never tbe grunt, it’s their NCO, Top, Company CO, and Battalion XO. But as long as those screw-offs are getting a pass, the guy asleep at the switch shouldn’t be punished either.
Of course, the First Century Romans would have probably just crucified the whole squad, busted the Centurion to galley slave, and sent the Tribune back home to explain to Caesar why the XXI Legion disappeared again.
None of this bad stuff happens with good sergeants on the job. And yes, I know there’s politics; but there are ways to motivate anyone to straighten up and march straight.
It just takes leadership who are actually leaders, not career catamites (using the most benevolent definition of that word).
Of course, when any Nation decides to replace guardposts with tourist sites and “electronic surveillance” (i.e. expensive videogames), it’s easy to understand why younger soldiers (and/or National Police) conscripts might think it’s not particularly serious…
Because at that point, it isn’t.
Only crazy people defect to NK.
NK is aware of this.
They treat defectors correctly.