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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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 Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:02 pm Post subject: 22 North Koreans escape, get sent back |
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It looks like a whole family escaped only to get shipped back a day later. I wonder where these people are now and how the incoming Lee administration will handle things like this.
http://koreabeat.com/?p=762
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On the morning of the 8th, the day after Seollal, 22 North Korean citizens gathered in two small boats and landed near Yeonpyeong-do, on the western coast, and were sent back to North Korea, it was confirmed on the 15th. But government authorities have neither confirmed nor announced this and it remains mysterious.
According to the Navy and the National Intelligence Service (국가정보원), they were gathering shellfish on the North Korean side of the West Sea in rowboats and were swept into the South by the currents, and during the investigation said they wanted to return to North Korea, to which they were sent by land late on the night of the 9th. |
They probably should have waited a few weeks for the new administration to settle in. |
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lastat06513
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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That was not an escape, they were swept offcourse and only wanted to go home after that.
There are occasional stories where fishermen, sailors, farmers and such who 'mistakingly' wander into the south and request to go home....
As scary as it might sound, some N. Koreans would prefer to be repatriated back home to the North rather than be seen as traitors in the eyes of the Northern government and have their families sent to concentration camps for the crime of defection that one relative committed (used to be a capital offense that warranted the death penalty, especially during the famine years of the mid-1990's)
What I think is that the these people might've tried to defect to the South, yet because "Comrade Noh" wants his name to placed on a marker in the North for his "progress" in inter-Korean relations, that some officials told them the repercussions of defection and persuaded them to go home...
Unlike the North, where a Southerner who stumbles North is then considered apart of the collective, a Northerner who stumbles South of the 38th and NLL is given the choice of either staying in the South (considered a defection) or could go back home to the North (considered a repatriation) |
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Hater Depot
Joined: 29 Mar 2005
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:20 pm Post subject: |
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| I thought defection was still a capital offense, no? |
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lastat06513
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian
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| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:03 pm Post subject: |
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No......except for that time when some film maker posted a sign over a bridge that declared that North Korea needed to be free that was broadcasted on CNN back around 2004 or 2005....at that time the borders were closed and anyone caught with a video phone or camera was arrested and interrogated ruthlessly.....from the people I met, it was a total nation lockdown....even official travel to some extent was banned.
As for defection........defections have been punished according to the social status of the person committing the offense......most of the defectors I've met in Korea were citizens who held mid-level government jobs in the DPRK and subsequently, whose families were sent to internment camps until the perpetrator returns (remember, NK has over 200K people in prison camps across the country).....usually, execution is only used as a deterrant to stop others from following in the person's footsteps.....usually it was a peasant from the bordertowns that would slip in and out of the N. Korean/ Chinese border...... |
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Suwoner10
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sat Feb 16, 2008 11:43 pm Post subject: |
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| lastat06513 wrote: |
That was not an escape, they were swept offcourse and only wanted to go home after that.
There are occasional stories where fishermen, sailors, farmers and such who 'mistakingly' wander into the south and request to go home....
As scary as it might sound, some N. Koreans would prefer to be repatriated back home to the North rather than be seen as traitors in the eyes of the Northern government and have their families sent to concentration camps for the crime of defection that one relative committed (used to be a capital offense that warranted the death penalty, especially during the famine years of the mid-1990's)
What I think is that the these people might've tried to defect to the South, yet because "Comrade Noh" wants his name to placed on a marker in the North for his "progress" in inter-Korean relations, that some officials told them the repercussions of defection and persuaded them to go home...
Unlike the North, where a Southerner who stumbles North is then considered apart of the collective, a Northerner who stumbles South of the 38th and NLL is given the choice of either staying in the South (considered a defection) or could go back home to the North (considered a repatriation) |
They've been executed.
http://www.tolerance.ca/Article.aspx?ID=8947&L=en |
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garykasparov
Joined: 27 May 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 1:53 am Post subject: |
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| They want to stay in South Korea, but if they do stay, their families will be put to death. Face it: with communists, there is no free choice. |
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Typhoon
Joined: 29 May 2007
Location: Daejeon
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:17 am Post subject: |
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Add another 22 to the total. When will the South start to care??  |
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jvalmer
Joined: 06 Jun 2003
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:24 am Post subject: |
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| Typhoon wrote: |
| Add another 22 to the total. When will the South start to care?? |
Hopefully with the new incoming president. But, his current silence isn't encouraging. |
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wylies99
Joined: 13 May 2006
Location: I'm one cool cat!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 2:55 am Post subject: |
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King Jong Il murders another 22 of his own people.  |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:01 am Post subject: |
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The North Korean defector who wrote "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" (can't recall his name, but the book is famous and he now works for the Chosun Ilbo) said that his family was neither put (back) in a camp or executed.
I don't recall the details, but he got in touch with someone who knew his family, and while they did fall under stricter supervision and a few interrogations, he said they weren't punished in any serious way. |
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Suwoner10
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 3:47 am Post subject: |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
The North Korean defector who wrote "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" (can't recall his name, but the book is famous and he now works for the Chosun Ilbo) said that his family was neither put (back) in a camp or executed.
I don't recall the details, but he got in touch with someone who knew his family, and while they did fall under stricter supervision and a few interrogations, he said they weren't punished in any serious way. |
The compassion of the Norks brings a tear to my eye... |
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Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 7:42 am Post subject: |
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Very sad, and very typical of the Roh administration. I'm so glad we don't have to endure Chung Dong-young as president. The former Unification Minister and North Korean lackey doubted publically the severity of the camps in North Korea and took a very anti-refugee stance:
http://freekorea.us/?p=2445
Curious to see if anyone down here will mourn the murder of their "brothers and sisters" by . . . their "brothers and sisters." Oh, wait, no, let's mourn the "tragedy" of Namdaemun instead. Namdaemun? I mean, Sungnyemun. We must save Sungnyemun, it is our culture, our heritage, and our soul. It was Korea's 9/11.
Keep that in mind next time you see a group of Koreans protesting the evils of the Burmese government. |
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lastat06513
Joined: 18 Mar 2003
Location: Sensus amo Caesar , etiamnunc victus amo uni plebian
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:31 am Post subject: |
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| cdninkorea wrote: |
The North Korean defector who wrote "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" (can't recall his name, but the book is famous and he now works for the Chosun Ilbo) said that his family was neither put (back) in a camp or executed.
I don't recall the details, but he got in touch with someone who knew his family, and while they did fall under stricter supervision and a few interrogations, he said they weren't punished in any serious way.
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Kang Chol-Hwan was born into an affluent family in the north who had relatives in government.
The people on the boat were mostly peasants that wanted to escape the economic as well as the everyday hardships of the North.
The difference between these two examples is that the first was born of priviledge, so his family would not be harmed due to their status in the government's apparatus.....and he had some knowledge that proved to be useful to Washington and Seoul........while the farmers/fishermen who 'drifted' on the raft provided nothing to the interest of both Washington or Seoul.....and in the case of the Noh government, could be sent back north as repatriates- though they were in turn used to serve as examples that it is not ok to try and escape to the south......if they were executed, mostly likely it was a public execution in their hometown to send a message that such behavior would not be tolerated (such things occurred in the former Iron Curtain, especially the Soviet Union).............. |
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Chris Kwon
Joined: 23 Jan 2008
Location: North Korea
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 8:35 am Post subject: |
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| Wow |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Sun Feb 17, 2008 11:24 am Post subject: |
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| lastat06513 wrote: |
| cdninkorea wrote: |
The North Korean defector who wrote "The Aquariums of Pyongyang" (can't recall his name, but the book is famous and he now works for the Chosun Ilbo) said that his family was neither put (back) in a camp or executed.
I don't recall the details, but he got in touch with someone who knew his family, and while they did fall under stricter supervision and a few interrogations, he said they weren't punished in any serious way.
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Kang Chol-Hwan was born into an affluent family in the north who had relatives in government.
The people on the boat were mostly peasants that wanted to escape the economic as well as the everyday hardships of the North.
The difference between these two examples is that the first was born of priviledge, so his family would not be harmed due to their status in the government's apparatus.....and he had some knowledge that proved to be useful to Washington and Seoul........while the farmers/fishermen who 'drifted' on the raft provided nothing to the interest of both Washington or Seoul.....and in the case of the Noh government, could be sent back north as repatriates- though they were in turn used to serve as examples that it is not ok to try and escape to the south......if they were executed, mostly likely it was a public execution in their hometown to send a message that such behavior would not be tolerated (such things occurred in the former Iron Curtain, especially the Soviet Union).............. |
I'm still wondering why his family wasn't executed though- if he really had family in government powerful enough to prevent their execution, why weren't they powerful enough to keep them out of Yodok for ten years?
And out of curiosity, how do you know so much about this stuff? |
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