Tag: defectors

Here is a very rare form of defection, crossing the DMZ to get to South Korea:

A North Korean man was taken into custody by the South Korean military Thursday after crossing the heavily fortified border between the two Koreas, according to the South’s Ministry of National Defense. The unidentified North Korean crossed the Military Demarcation Line — the actual border that divides the peninsula — Thursday evening, the ministry said in a text message to reporters Friday morning.

The message did not specify his motive for crossing. The North Korean was first spotted in a shallow stream in the midwestern part of the border early Thursday using South Korean surveillance equipment, the ministry said in a separate message Friday, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff. South Korea’s military deployed troops to the area and guided the man, who identified himself as a civilian, out of the Demilitarized Zone, the message said. The operation took about 20 hours after the North Korean was first detected, the message added.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I have been over the Unification Bridge more times than I can remember and this guy never had a chance of succeeding to defect this way. This likely more a call for mental help which is likely why he wasn’t jailed:

A South Korean court on Monday handed a suspended sentence to a North Korean defector who attempted to cross the border back into the North last year using a stolen bus, according to local media. The defector, who was not publicly identified, received a two-year prison sentence suspended for three years from the Goyang Branch of Uijeongbu District Court, the Yonhap News Agency reported Monday.

The ruling means he will avoid jail time if he does not commit further offenses during that period. The incident occurred on Oct. 1, when the man stole a shuttle bus from a garage in Paju, about five miles south of the heavily fortified border, and drove it approximately three miles toward the Unification Bridge, which spans the Imjin River and connects the two Koreas.

He was apprehended by South Korean soldiers after crashing into a checkpoint barricade, Gyeonggi Provincial Police said at the time. The court stated in its ruling that the defector did not appear motivated by support for or loyalty to North Korea, according to Yonhap.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

I have long been a supporter of flooding North Korea with as much outside information as possible to challenge the propaganda the regime indoctrinates its people with. However, the number of defections though up this year are still too small to say the regime is crumbling:

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea, Tuesday, by walking across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) on the heavily fortified inter-Korean border. The defection occurred about two weeks after a North Korean resident crossed the maritime border in the Han River estuary on the west coast.

In recent years, North Korea’s elite, including high-level diplomats stationed abroad, have also defected to the South. The latest defector, Ri Il-gyu, fled from Cuba to South Korea in November of last year.

North Korea watchers and defectors residing in South Korea say these defections might indicate increasing economic hardship in the North and a growing desire for freedom among its residents, driven by access to information about the outside world. (…..)

Kim Seung-chul, president of North Korea Reform Radio who defected from the North in 1993, said President Yoon Suk Yeol’s policy of embracing defectors has stirred up complex feelings in the minds of North Koreans.

“South Korea celebrated its first North Korean Defectors’ Day on July 14, and President Yoon’s outreach to 26 million North Korean citizens in his speech is affecting the minds of North Koreans. The loudspeaker campaign and anti-Pyongyang leaflets have also been effective in bringing about change,” Kim said.

Socio-economic factors, such as economic hardship and political oppression, continue to drive North Koreans to flee their country. In the first half of the year, the number of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea reached 105, a slight increase from 99 in the previous year.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but there has never been a coordinated and sustained effort to flood North Korea with outside information. This is probably the lowest cost way to pressure the Kim regime. Just their reactions to the propaganda balloon launches by the defector group Fighters for a Free North Korea demonstrates that what they are doing is having an impact within North Korea.

Here is the newest addition to the Odusan Observatory:

Oh Eun Jeong, a poet who fled North Korea in 2009, left behind a younger sister for whom she still longs. Oh, profiled by The Washington Post in 2018 as one of many young North Korean defectors thriving with new lives in the South, said that longing motivated her to write poetry. “I think about my sister every day,” she told Stars and Stripes by phone Aug. 8. “Knowing she’s still there while I’m here makes my heart heavy.” Oh and other former North Koreans now have a place to bring those sentiments. On Aug. 1, the South Korean Ministry for Unification unveiled a monument to those who escaped the North or lost their lives in the attempt. “This monument gives me a place to express that longing, even if I can’t be with her,” Oh said.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.

The NIS must have helped with defection considering he defected by taking a flight to South Korea:

This March 19, 2024, file photo shows the North Korean Embassy in Cuba. (Yonhap)

A North Korean diplomat who had been stationed in Cuba defected to South Korea last year, South Korea’s spy agency said Tuesday, the latest in a small but growing number of defections by North Koreans in elite groups.

The National Intelligence Service confirmed a media report that Ri Il-gyu, who had served as the counselor of political affairs at the North’s embassy in Cuba, entered South Korea in November with his family. It did not provide further details.

The defection came as efforts were under way for South Korea to establish diplomatic relations with Cuba. In February, the two countries forged formal ties in a surprise move widely seen as a setback to North Korea, which has long boasted about its brotherly ties with the Caribbean country.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

When it comes to claims from defectors I give the usual caveat of who knows how true this actually is. With that said I would not be surprised if Kim Jong-un didn’t have his own pleasure squad as the defector claims:

사진 확대Kim Jong-un (left) and North Korean defector Park Yeon-mi [Photo source = Yonhap News, Mirror]

A North Korean woman claimed that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is selecting a “joy group” for pleasure like his father Kim Jong-il.

On the 30th of last month (local time), the British Mirror published an article titled “Kim Jong-un picks 25 maidens every year to entertain him in the creepy pleasure class.”

The Mirror wrote an article based on the argument of Park Yeon-mi, a North Korean defector. Park introduced when Joyjo appeared and which women were selected.

He claimed that he was a twice-nominated candidate but was not chosen because of his family’s status.

Park explained that the Joyjo idea was devised by Kim Jong Il in the 1970s. He said he picked a few pretty women and took them to the resort where his father, Kim Il-sung, was going.

Kim Jong-il created a second Joyjo for himself in 1983, Park claimed.

“The three men have different preferences for women, so the team composition has changed,” he said. “Kim Jong-il prefers women who are shorter than 160cm but not too tall, and Kim Jong-un prefers slim and Western women.”

Park claimed that the Joy group consisted of three groups each responsible for massage, performance, and sexual activity.

Maiel Kyeongchae

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest numbers on North Koreans defecting to the South:

The number of North Korean defectors who successfully reached South Korea came to 43 in the first quarter, marking an increase from the same period last year, government data showed Tuesday. 
  
According to the Unification Ministry, eight men and 35 women arrived in South Korea from the beginning of January to the end of March, bringing the total number of North Korean defectors who have arrived in the South to 34,121. 
  
The latest figure was lower than 57 tallied in the previous quarter but was higher than 34 in the same period a year earlier.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is rare type of defection if these four were in fact planning to defect:

A South Korean vessel tows a wooden boat that crossed the inter-Korean border to a port in the coastal county of Yangyang, 150 kilometers northeast of Seoul, on Oct. 24, 2023. (Yonhap)

 A group of four unidentified individuals from North Korea crossed the eastern maritime inter-Korean border on a wooden boat early Tuesday, officials said, in an apparent attempt to defect to South Korea.

The Coast Guard and military officials secured the 7.5-meter-long boat carrying the North Koreans in waters east of Sokcho, 151 kilometers northeast of Seoul, a military official said, after South Korean fishermen at the scene reported seeing an “unusual” boat at around 7:10 a.m.

The group consists of one man and three women, according to Coast Guard officials. Details of their identities have not been made known.

Lim Jae-kil, one of the fishermen who were at the scene, recalled seeing a man who appeared to be in his 30s wearing boots and oil-stained clothing, and two women, presumably in their 30s and 50s, respectively.

The individuals did not express their intent to defect to the South but asked where they were and remarked on how “nice” Lim’s boat was, he said.

Lim said he had never seen such a boat in his more than 40 years of life as a fisherman, adding it appeared to have the engine of a cultivator.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the last maritime defection from North Korea was back in 2019 according to the article.

Here is what we know about Travis King, the U.S. Soldier who ran across the DMZ to North Korea laughing earlier this week:

Officials say Pvt. 2nd Class King has been a cavalry scout with the U.S. Army since January 2021. 

The 23-year-old had been stationed in South Korea, but had recently served two months in a prison there on charges of assault, the Associated Press reported.

Several South Korean media outlets report that King had punched a South Korean national in a club last September. He had also been fined 5 million won ($3,942) for causing public damage and being uncooperative with police during his arrest.

According to an account from the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, citing legal sources, King yelled obscenities at South Korean police as he kicked the doors and interior of a police vehicle.

CBS News reports that King was released to U.S. officials at the military hub in the country about a week ago.

Before bolting into North Korea, King was being escorted to an airport outside of Seoul where he was expected to board a plane bound for Fort Bliss, Texas, to face military disciplinary action. 

Officials escorted him through airport security, but King somehow managed to ditch the escort and make his way out of the terminal and back to the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea. 

That is where officials said King, who was dressed in civilian clothes, joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom.

NPR

You can read more at the link, but King had to have planned this out because here are the rules for going on a tour of Panmunjom on the DMZ:

According to the UNC rules the roster of the tourists to Panmunjum should be reported 48 hours (2 days) prior to the tour briefing time (13:45) in the camp Bonifas on the tour day. So person who is interested in this tour should send your name, passport number and nationality to us at least 3 days before.

KoreaDMZtour.com

The fact he claimed that he lost his passport to not board his flight is further evidence of how planned this was:

On Monday, the American solider was escorted by military police from Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, to Incheon International Airport. The solider then went through a security checkpoint alone because the military police officers were not allowed to accompany him.

King arrived at the boarding gate, but did not board the plane. 

“At the gate, he approached an American Airlines official and reported that his passport was missing, and was able to return out of the departure gate under the escort of an airline employee,” an official at Incheon International Airport told The Korea Times, adding that King appears to have lied about his missing passport.  

Once a passenger goes through the customs and immigration checkpoint at Incheon airport, he or she cannot go back to the terminal without a valid reason approved by an authorized personnel. 

Korea Times

So this was clearly not a drunken spur of the moment type of defection like we saw decades ago with Charles Robert Jenkins. King had this planned out at least three days in advance. The closest defection to this I can think of is PFC Joseph White who defected in 1982 likely because he was forbidden by his unit leadership from meeting his Korean girlfriend. So he got pissed off and crossed the DMZ into North Korea. In 1985 North Korea reported that White died in a river drowning. Will a similar fate await King?

This is why it is important to continue to undermine the Kim regime by providing access to outside information into North Korea:

North Korean brothers who brought their family members out of the country earlier this month are late millennials, part of the tech-savvy younger generation of North Korea who have increased access to external information.

Sources with knowledge of the latest defections told The Korea Herald on Sunday that it was the two brothers in their early 30s who had made the decision to leave North Korea with their family.

The sources said that the brothers told Seoul officials here in a screening interview that they had yearned for a life in South Korea after secretly watching South Korean TV. In particular, they cited the talk show “Now on My Way to Meet You,” featuring North Korean defectors, as having had a major influence.

Analyses say North Korean millennials are the main consumers of foreign media content, mostly from South Korea, in the totalitarian country where such acts are severely punished.

According to a South Korean government report on the human rights situation in North Korea released in March, North Korea has publicly executed citizens including teens for watching South Korean media.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.