ID :
86561
Wed, 10/28/2009 - 14:20
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/86561
The shortlink copeid
Border fence ripped northward in alleged defection to N. Korea
By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- An opening large enough to let a grown-up man squeeze through has been found facing northward at the barb-wired fence where a South Korean sought by police is believed to have defected to North Korea, officials said Wednesday.
The discovery at a South Korean army base on the eastern side of the heavily
guarded Demilitarized Zone supports Pyongyang's claim that a 30-year-old Kang
Tong-rim defected to North Korea on Monday after years of "longing" for the
communist neighbor.
"It was cut from south to north," Park Sung-woo, spokesperson for the South
Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said in a briefing. He said the military
regrets the breach, but added that the claim of defection has yet to be
confirmed.
Another official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the opening
was 30cm by 40cm in size.
"The barbed wires were pried open toward the north from the ground," the official
said. The Ministry of National Defense said it sent a team of inspectors to the
base for more fact-finding.
Defections from the capitalist South to the North are extremely rare. The JCS
said on Tuesday Kang has been on a police wanted list since Sept. 25 for an
assault incident earlier that month.
Kang "is now under the warm care of a relevant organ," the North's official
Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday in a report monitored in Seoul. "He is
pleased with the accomplishment of his desire for defection."
"During the military service he made several attempts to defect owing to his
longing for the northern half of Korea, but in vain," it said. Two years of
military service is mandatory for all able-bodied men in South Korea.
According to the report, Kang raised pigs on a farm in South Korea's southwestern
region after quitting his job at a Samsung-affiliated semiconductor company.
Samsung Electronics Co. said Kang's name was not found on its list of former
workers.
The JCS said Kang had served from 2001-2003 at the border army base where the
damaged barbed wire was discovered.
While about 17,000 North Koreans have come to the South, mostly via China, since
the 1950-53 Korean War, South Koreans have rarely sought to enter the
impoverished neighbor.
In 2004, the South Korean military found a barbed wire fence had been breached
near a frontline observation post. It suspected a man in his thirties had
defected to the North, which made no related announcement.
In 2007, a 45-year-old South Korean made it into the communist neighbor through
the border between North Korea and China, but was later expelled.
Last month, a 54-year-old South Korean received a suspended prison term in South
Korea for trying to defect to Pyongyang through a North Korean embassy earlier
this year.
In March, a 40-year-old Japanese man apparently suffering from mental illness was
taken into custody after trying to cut his way through barbed wires bisecting the
Koreas.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- An opening large enough to let a grown-up man squeeze through has been found facing northward at the barb-wired fence where a South Korean sought by police is believed to have defected to North Korea, officials said Wednesday.
The discovery at a South Korean army base on the eastern side of the heavily
guarded Demilitarized Zone supports Pyongyang's claim that a 30-year-old Kang
Tong-rim defected to North Korea on Monday after years of "longing" for the
communist neighbor.
"It was cut from south to north," Park Sung-woo, spokesperson for the South
Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), said in a briefing. He said the military
regrets the breach, but added that the claim of defection has yet to be
confirmed.
Another official, who spoke on customary condition of anonymity, said the opening
was 30cm by 40cm in size.
"The barbed wires were pried open toward the north from the ground," the official
said. The Ministry of National Defense said it sent a team of inspectors to the
base for more fact-finding.
Defections from the capitalist South to the North are extremely rare. The JCS
said on Tuesday Kang has been on a police wanted list since Sept. 25 for an
assault incident earlier that month.
Kang "is now under the warm care of a relevant organ," the North's official
Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday in a report monitored in Seoul. "He is
pleased with the accomplishment of his desire for defection."
"During the military service he made several attempts to defect owing to his
longing for the northern half of Korea, but in vain," it said. Two years of
military service is mandatory for all able-bodied men in South Korea.
According to the report, Kang raised pigs on a farm in South Korea's southwestern
region after quitting his job at a Samsung-affiliated semiconductor company.
Samsung Electronics Co. said Kang's name was not found on its list of former
workers.
The JCS said Kang had served from 2001-2003 at the border army base where the
damaged barbed wire was discovered.
While about 17,000 North Koreans have come to the South, mostly via China, since
the 1950-53 Korean War, South Koreans have rarely sought to enter the
impoverished neighbor.
In 2004, the South Korean military found a barbed wire fence had been breached
near a frontline observation post. It suspected a man in his thirties had
defected to the North, which made no related announcement.
In 2007, a 45-year-old South Korean made it into the communist neighbor through
the border between North Korea and China, but was later expelled.
Last month, a 54-year-old South Korean received a suspended prison term in South
Korea for trying to defect to Pyongyang through a North Korean embassy earlier
this year.
In March, a 40-year-old Japanese man apparently suffering from mental illness was
taken into custody after trying to cut his way through barbed wires bisecting the
Koreas.
samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)
