Tag: refugees

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.

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.

This is a really interesting read from a North Korean defector that had a very different upbringing from most defectors:

It has been said “Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.” My name is Lee Seo-hyun. I am a North Korean escapee who gave up the certain opportunity to thrive in hell, and instead fled my native country to face certain uncertainty.

My experience as a North Korean escapee might surprise you. I did not grow up in extreme poverty; I was not coerced into human trafficking; nor do I have horrific stories of being a political prisoner. My father was a senior-level government officer for the North Korean regime, and his loyal commitment to the nation and the leader allowed our family to live in the capital Pyongyang, a privilege as North Koreans. 

Like most people in North Korea, I had no doubts about the regime because I was brainwashed. I truly believed what our leader said: “Our country is the envy of the world!” Yes, I was living in a bubble. Not of my choosing ― I wasn’t even aware of it ― but a bubble, nonetheless. 

What about you? Have you ever even considered the possibility that you may be living in a bubble, regardless of your politics or religion, regardless of the color of your skin or your perceived status in life?

What if the ‘Bubble’ ― the truth I had accepted without question ― is in some way no different from yours ― although yours probably doesn’t include political oppression and torture? 

Korea Times

I highly recommend reading the whole thing at the link.

I kind of agree with the Moon administration on this one, these two defectors admitted to murdering 16 people and this is not the type of people South Koreans should want in their country:

The office of President Yoon Suk-yeol immediately struck back at former Foreign Minister and National Security Adviser Chung Eui-yong on Sunday after he defended the previous administration’s 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen against their will.

Chung said earlier Sunday the then government of President Moon Jae-in determined the North Koreans’ expression of a desire to defect as insincere and decided to deport them, as they had confessed to killing 16 fellow crew members.

Chung also said the North Koreans “were rare, grotesque killers.”

“Some claim that we had to accept them into our society as defectors in accordance with our Constitution,” he said in a statement. “However, our domestic law stipulates that nonpolitical criminals, like them, should be deported without being allowed into the country. Nonpolitical serious criminals are also not considered refugees under international law.”

Just hours later, Choi Young-bum, senior presidential secretary for press affairs, hit back at Chung.

“What officials of the previous administration and the opposition party should do is not to engage in a political offensive, but to cooperate faithfully with the investigation,” Choi said.

Choi also criticized Chung for portraying the North Koreans as “grotesque killers,” accusing him of making such a characterization without a proper investigation of them.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is another example of a Tom Hanks like stranding at an airport:

A man seeking asylum status in Korea was allowed to leave Incheon International Airport and enter the country after being stuck there for 14 months, as his refugee application had been denied. 

Incheon District Court made a ruling, Tuesday, to allow temporary dismissal of his status as an “internee” and granted him the right to stay at a local hospital in order to undergo medical treatment. 

The man, whose nationality was not revealed, from his home country due to political persecution and arrived at Incheon International Airport in February 2020. But his refugee application was denied by the Ministry of Justice, as the final destination of his flight was another country, with Korea as a transfer point. Refugees can make applications as asylum seekers at immigration checkpoints. 

Since that time, he had been living in the transit zone of the airport. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

If you do anything this weekend, I recommend reading this entire posting over at One Free Korea about the Ningpo 12. They were the group of North Korean waitresses that defected from their restaurant in China to South Korea in 2014. The Kim regime has claimed they were kidnapped by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service.

The lawyer group called Minbyun launched a lawsuit against the government essentially on the behalf of Kim Jong-un to validate this theory. Most ROK Heads know this, but for new readers it is important to understand that the Minbyun group are hard core leftists.  In the past they have attacked the USFK base relocation, tried to bring back the US beef issue, and tried to have North Korean defectors forcibly returned to North Korea.  Below is an excerpt from the OFK article that shows why the restaurant manager named Heo Gang-il changed his story about why they defected after meeting with Minbyun:

Heo claims that at the meetings, Jang offered him and three of the ex-waitresses a stipend of 300,000 to 500,000 won per month. Heo says that Jang also told him he could earn “a lot more money” by suing the South Korean government for coercing a defection under false pretenses. Jang also began to suggest that the four refugees go back to North Korea. He asked Heo to tell this story at a press conference. At one point, Minbyun lawyers handed some of the women photographs of their family members back in North Korea, posing before lavish banquets, which they had obtained from their “clients.” They also gave the women letters from their families, urging the women to return to the “open arms” of their motherland. Heo also recently told Yonhap TV that Kim Sam-seok urged them to go back to North Korea to save their families.

One Free Korea

JTBC the news network behind the fraudulent tablet computer story that was a major factor in the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye, was chosen to interview Heo for his new story about the defections. Major international media outlets like the New York Times ran articles that essentially supported North Korea’s view of events based on Heo’s change of story. Now we know that Heo was on the take from Minbyun. Incredibly Heo was meeting with Minbyun lawyers at the comfort women house now making headlines in South Korea that was run by the disgraced Yoon Mee-hyang:

Last month, South Korea’s largest-circulation daily, the right-leaning Chosun Ilbo, also found Heo in his new country of residence and interviewed him. Heo told the Chosun Ilbo that in June 2018, after the JTBC interview, Yoon Mee-hyang and Kim Sam-seok invited him and at least three of the 12 ex-waitresses to a weekend retreat at a shelter for the wartime rape survivors. It was the first of a series of such meetings. Also present at the meetings were representatives of various “civic groups,” including the Japan-based North Korean front group Chongryon, a “prisoners of conscience” organization, and Minbyun. The most notable Minbyun attendee was a lawyer named “Jang.” It may also have been around this time that at least some of the Ningpo 12 began volunteering at the Council’s shelter and befriending the elderly survivors.

Yoon Mee-hyang is married to Kim Sam-seok who is a convicted North Korean spy and she is accused of using comfort women to raise money for her own personal use. Now she is tied to the Ningpo-12 scandal as well. Incredibly Yoon is a newly appointed lawmaker for the South Korean ruling party.

Once again I highly recommend reading the whole article at the link.