Lee upbraids top commanders over S. Korean defection to N. Korea

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Nov. 3 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Myung-bak chided top military commanders
Tuesday over the defection of a South Korean man to North Korea last week across
the intensely guarded land border.
"It is a serious problem that we came to know of the breach of the barbed-wire
fence by a civilian only after North Korea publicized it through its broadcast,"
Lee told a group of newly promoted general-grade officers, according to his
spokesperson, Lee Dong-kwan.
Five Army officers, including a major general, at a frontline base were sacked
because of the incident. North Korea said Oct. 27 that a South Korean farmer
named Kang Tong-rim crossed the eastern side of the Demilitarized Zone after
years of "longing" to live under the communist regime.
The South Korean military "should look back on itself and ask whether guard
duties are being carried out halfheartedly," Lee told the officers at the
presidential office Cheong Wa Dae, according to the spokesperson.
South and North Korea have remained technically at war with each other since the
1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce and not a peace treaty. They now maintain one
of the world's most fortified borders.
"I'm worried that our military has grown to lax during the long state of
ceasefire," Lee said, ordering the commanders to tighten border guard activities,
according to the spokesperson.
Defections of South Koreans to the North are considered extremely rare. Kang, who
was on a police wanted list for assault charges, raised pigs at a farm in
southwestern South Korea before he defected across a section of the border
monitored by his former army base.
The incident came as South and North Korea move toward reconciliation after more
than a year of frosty relations. Lee, a hardliner on the North, has called for a
tough military posture to underpin dialogue since he took office in February last
year.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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