Tag: defectors

More rats fleeing a sinking ship:

Two high-ranking officials from the North Korean embassy in Beijing – including a man who had overseen leader Kim Jong-un’s health care – defected with their families last month, a source well-informed on North Korea revealed.

“On Sept. 28, a heavyweight representative in North Korea’s mission in Beijing – who came from the Health Ministry – escaped with his wife and daughter,” the source exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo on Tuesday. “This family made contact with the Japanese Embassy in China to begin the procedure to head to Japan.”

The official has relatives in Japan, which was why he chose to defect to Tokyo rather than Seoul.

As a high-ranking Health Ministry official, he would have overseen the Bonghwa Medical Center, which treats North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and his family, as well as the Namsan Hospital and the Red Cross Hospital.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if the health official is fleeing because he is getting blamed for the poor health of Kim Jong-un?  It must be a stressful job trying to keep that guy healthy.

It is great to finally see a South Korean leader openly advocate for North Korean citizens to stand up to the Kim Jong-un regime by voting with their feet:

President Park Geun-hye issued a blunt message to urge North Korean soldiers and citizens to defect to the South, inviting criticisms from liberal politicians over her provocativeness while fueling speculations about conditions in the reclusive communist regime.

Park made the comment in a speech at a ceremony to mark Armed Forces Day on Saturday. In the speech, she addressed the latest security crisis caused by the Kim Jong-un regime’s nuclear and missile development and the South’s determination to counter it.

Park made perhaps the most provocative proposal by far to North Koreans. “Today, I want to clearly tell the reality that the North Korean regime is facing to the North Korean authorities, military and people,” she said, stressing that it is a misunderstanding and miscalculation of the young North Korean ruler to expect to achieve security and internal unity by demonstrating its nuclear and missile capabilities and escalating military tensions.

She noted that the international community is reacting differently from the past to the North’s provocations and the North is facing strengthened pressures and sanctions, while the negotiation stage has ended.

She, then, directly addressed the North Korean people. “We know the brutal reality that you are facing now. The international community is also seriously concerned about the North Korean regime’s human rights abuses.”

Promising that the South will do its best to end the North’s provocations and inhumane rule, Park said, “We will leave the path open for the North Korean people to find hope and life. Come to the free land of the Republic of Korea at any time.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This defection is actually pretty unusual since it is only the third defection of a North Korean soldiers in the past four years:

A North Korean soldier defected Thursday across the Demilitarized Zone dividing the peninsula, the South Korean military said.

The soldier crossed the military demarcation line at about 10 a.m. inside the 2.5-mile-wide DMZ, a military official confirmed, speaking on condition of anonymity according to department policy.

The military is investigating how and why the soldier defected, the official said, adding he could not provide more details.

South Korea has reported an increasing number of defectors from the North this year as the isolated country’s ruler Kim Jong Un seeks to tighten his grip on power.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link.

I guess this makes sense considering how many soldiers are reportedly missing and the damage done to border checkpoints:

North Korea has hastily dispatched agents from its State Security Ministry to flood-damaged areas bordering China to block mass defections of residents there, a U.S. broadcaster, monitored in Seoul, reported Monday.

This summer, the North’s northeastern provinces adjacent to China were devastated by heavy rains accompanied by Typhoon Lionrock. The United Nations estimates that 138 North Koreans were killed and 400 others are missing in the country’s worst flooding in its history, with about 20,000 houses destroyed.

The North Korean authorities employed the step as defections have become easier as the heavy rains wrecked lots of border facilities, such as guard posts, and barbed-wire fences, the Radio Free Asia (RFA) said, citing a source in the North. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is an article that provides a reminder of how difficult the life for many North Korean defectors has been before finding refuge:

Back in my home country, I was charged with trying to escape North Korea and sent to a jail where a dozen male and female, young and old prisoners were squeezed into a room no bigger than a metre square. There was only one toilet in the corner of the room and no privacy.
Like other inmates, I was treated as an enemy of the state and forced to do hard labour, clearing the hills of trees so that crops could be planted. I became so malnourished that my skin turned black and my body was skeletal. I lost big clumps of hair and felt utter despair. But the greatest pain was in my heart. I couldn’t bear being separated from my child. On days I thought about death, the thought of seeing my son again was all that kept me going.We were not allowed to wear shoes in the prison, in case we tried to run away. Slowly the skin on my feet became broken and calloused from the rough stones on the ground. My wounds became infected until finally gangrene set in. It was desperately painful, but what I didn’t realise was this would be my passport to freedom. The prison doctor told me that the United Nations had intervened to condemn the conditions in North Korea’s prisons, and he persuaded the guards that I needed rest.

Thanks to him, I was sent to a prison for children where I was to stay until I was well enough to return to finish my two-year sentence. But after two months, when I was able to walk with a limp, I begged the guards to let me leave. My father had passed away just after I left for China, and I told them I wanted to visit his grave. In a rare moment of generosity, they agreed to let me go and, the minute I was out, I headed for the Chinese border again. I had no money, and I knew the only hope of seeing my son again was to approach another trafficker on the North Korean side and tell him I wanted to be sold again into marriage. Once inside China, I managed to escape.  [Yahoo News]

You can read much more at the link, but this North Korean defector went through a lot before getting to England.  This article is also a reminder of the modern day comfort woman trade that the Chinese government indirectly sponsors with North Korean refuge women in China.

Repackaging identity? South Korean matchmaking service ad promotes 1,000 North marriageable Korean defector women. pic.twitter.com/PmH4tfmaoD

— Elizabeth Shim (@GlobalAsianista) August 22, 2016

Yesterday the regime was claiming their diplomat was coerced into defecting and today they are claiming he is a criminal:

In its first official response to the high-profile defection, the North accused the South of launching an “anti-DPRK (North Korea) smear campaign and confrontation.”

“The Park Geun-hye group of traitors in South Korea carried out an operation to bring to South Korea a DPRK’s diplomat who fled his mission in London with his family for fear of legal punishment for his crimes,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said in an English dispatch monitored in Seoul.

The KCNA did not identify Thae by his name but claimed the fugitive “was instructed to return home in June last for questioning as regards the embezzlement of huge amount of state funds, leakage of state secrets for money and rape of a minor.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Here are some more details about the defection of North Korean diplomat Thae Yong-ho:

According to multiple sources who spoke under the condition of anonymity, Thae physically met an official from the South Korean government in mid-July at a tennis court in Britain and said he wished to defect with his wife and two sons. The family realized that plan late last month, traveling directly from the United Kingdom to South Korea.

That rendezvous at the tennis court was the first time Thae had ever opened up to a South Korean official about his desire to defect, the sources said.

Steve Evans, a South Korean correspondent for BBC, wrote in an article published Tuesday that he has pleasant memories” with Thae and that “the signs were there” that the diplomat thought about defecting to South Korea.

“I recall he asked me about life in Seoul,” wrote Evans. “I told him it was a mega-bustling city, a world away from Pyongyang.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans are blaming the defection on coercion by the ROK with money, women and possibly even kidnapping his kids.

Another rat has fled the sinking ship:

A North Korean diplomat stationed in Britain left his post to seek asylum in another country earlier this month along with his wife and child, the latest in a series of defections by senior North Korean officials.

According to a source with in-depth knowledge of North Korea on Monday, the diplomat embarked on a defection journey “following a scrupulous plan” and was in the process of “landing in a third country as an asylum seeker.” In matters of defection, “third country” signifies a country that is neither North nor South Korea.

“The North Korean Embassy in Britain tried to find him, but it is said that it has failed,” said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I would think the North Korean regime will probably now consider not allowing these diplomats to serve overseas with their families to prevent defections.

https://twitter.com/pearswick/status/765932233500655616