Via One Free Korea comes the latest story of yet another group of rogue North Korean soldiers rampaging within China:
Wanted poster of North Korean soldier.
Two armed North Korean border patrol guards from Sinuiju in North Hamkyung Province reportedly escaped the country and crossed over into China’s Dandong on Tuesday, Daily NK has learned. Of the two, one was captured on Thursday by Chinese public security officials, while the other is still on the run, according to local sources.
Upon discovery of the incident, North Korea’s military authorities immediately alerted Chinese authorities in the border city of Dandong, leading to a large-scale manhunt on the same day and the plastering of posters featuring the soldiers’ images around heavily trafficked areas of Dandong. Going AWOL, particularly while armed, is considered an offense of great magnitude in both North Korea and China.
Three days into the search, one of the soldiers was arrested in a small rural village near Dandong. “A North Korean solider carrying a gun was apprehended in quiet village near Dandong Singu District,” a source based in the border city told Daily NK. “At the time, there were large numbers of public security officials and soldiers on the streets.”
He added, “The solider held a woman hostage shortly before he was captured, creating a standoff with security officials. But in the end he was subdued.” [Daily NK]
You can read the rest at the link, but One Free Korea has much more on how this is a sign of how the crackdown on the border to prevent guards from accepting bribes from defectors could be leading to these crime sprees within China.
Due to the famine of the 1990’s North Korea is now requiring all females after finishing high school to serve 5 years in the military:
North Korea is making military service mandatory for young women in a bid to strengthen the nation’s armed forces, sources inside the secretive state have told DailyNK.
The measure is said to apply to women aged between 17 and 20, and has been handed down to mobilisation offices in each province, city, and county. Implementation is reported to be already underway.
“Late last year, we received orders for all women who have graduated from middle and high school to undergo mandatory military service,” a source based in North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK this week. [The Guardian]
You can read the rest at the link, but women have to serve 5 years and men still have to serve 10 years.
It just seems to me there has to be more to this story for this North Korean soldier to kill four elderly Chinese citizens simply because he was hungry:
Photo taken on December 16, 2013 shows North Korean soldiers standing guard on the banks of the Yalu River which separates the North Korean town of Sinuiju from the Chinese border town of Dandong (AFP Photo/Mark Ralston)
A North Korean believed to be a runaway soldier killed four Chinese citizens during a robbery after he crossed the border into China in search of food, media reports said Monday.
The young North Korean soldier crossed the border in late December and stole money and food at a house before killing four residents in China’s northeastern city of Helong, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency and Dong-A Ilbo newspaper said.
Both cited sources in the border areas between China and the North.
The victims were either shot dead or beaten to death, Dong-A said, adding he was later shot and captured by Chinese authorities.
“Killing several Chinese nationals… is a major crime, so there are good possibilities that China, unlike other runaway North Korean soldiers captured before, will not hand him over to the North,” said an unnamed Seoul official quoted by Yonhap. [AFP via reader tip]
You can read more at the link, but according to the article residents in the area say that North Korean soldiers crossing the border in search of food is a common occurrence.
North Korea has reportedly began their routine winter training cycle with Kim Jong-un giving tips to an artillery unit:
The North Korean military has kicked off a winter exercise at the instruction of leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang’s state media reported Tuesday.
All troops of the Korean People’s Army (KPA) started “the new year combat and political drill,” said the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
The North’s military routinely holds such training from December through March.
The North’s leader chose an artillery unit for his first “field guidance” during the defense exercise season.
He inspected “the Artillery Company under KPA Unit 963,” teaching ways to make the company “one of the crack shots by conducting the drill suited to the nature of its combat duty,” according to the KCNA. [Yonhap]
