“Worker’s Paradise”, Eh?
Earlier today (Korea Daylight Time), a young North Korean soldier decided he’d had enough. So he quit. He defected to South Korea – and freedom.
The defection of people from North Korea to South Korea isn’t that uncommon any more. However, the defection of a member of the North Korean military or government is somewhat rare.
What’s particularly noteworthy in this case is the way the man defected, though.
He defected by walking across the Korean DMZ. He turned himself in at a South Korean guard post after crossing and was taken into custody.
Cojones muy grande, indeed.
Both Fox News and the Korean news agency Yonhap have stories concerning the defection. However, details are scanty in both articles; the South Korean government is still interrogating and processing the defector and has released little information so far.
Welcome to the free world, young man. I hope you make the most of your new life.
Category: North Korea
Brave indeed. I can’t imagine how hard of a decision that had to be knowing that your entire family will now be imprisoned or killed.
With the propaganda they get fed up North, no telling what he thought his reception would be in the South either.
All true, but who knows whether he even had any family — left, that is. What with the generally shitty conditions, recent famine, not to mention the whackadoodles in charge.
He made it to the Free World, but I pity his family, they’ll spend the rest of their lives in a NK Gulag if they aren’t machine gunned to death in front of a crowd forced to watch it.
Welcome, my father would have been pleased to hear of your bravery and freedom.
The Korean War needs to end.
He walked across a minefield. Patrick Henry said “Give me liberty or give me death” This young man said the same thing and acted on it.
Most often when we read or hear about North Korea its about the Dictator doing something stupid. We forget that they have a million man army. We forget that every man woman and child live in fear. That fear is so routine to them that they dont even think about it.
Kim Jun Un is in many ways far worse than Hitler and it is just a matter of time before we will once again respond in a panic to the invasion of south Korean and the actions of a mad man. Except this time they will be nuke capable and not afrais to use them.
First, if it’s true that his family (assuming he has a family) will be killed or imprisoned because of his defection, I’ll just hold my applause, thanks. I cannot admire someone who sacrificed his family for his own freedom. Second, there is another possible explanation for his making it across the DMZ and through a minefield, one that may earn him a medal and his family an autographed photo of needledick: he’s on a Nork mission of one sort or another.
Agree with everything you said.
The “SOF” guys they send down into the ROK know enough about the south. This guy being on a mission for the North is unlikely.
Even if he is, I think once he sees the way that the ROK lives he’ll decide to stick around and enjoy it.
He’s probably getting more food and living more comfortable while he’s going thru interrogation and the like than he did while he was in the North.
That would be my assessment as well, Eric.
And I’d also guess the South Koreans know a thing or two about identifying “plants” among refugees.
I didn’t say that his mission would succeed. Or is someone going to argue that the NorKs aren’t stupid and wouldn’t try? My second point was merely an alternative explanation for his safe trip.
Good luck young man. He’s got a hard time adjusting ahead of himself too.
I suggest reading Escape from Camp 14 (http://www.amazon.com/Escape-Camp-14-Remarkable-Odyssey/dp/0143122916) to get an idea about life in North Korean prison camps and the struggle for a defector to integrate into the free world.
YIPES! Stones, indeed. I was stationed in Korea for a year (as was a fair majority of TAH readership, I’m sure), but nowhere near the border. Even as far “south” as we were, we’d constantly hear about woodland critters being blown up due to stepping on a landmine in the DMZ.
I wish that young’en lotsa luck in hopefully assimilating to his new home. As much as Asians have a culture of family above all else, I can’t even imagine what it was that drove him to leave his behind to the tender “mercies” (/sarc) of NDtBF.
From the way I understand things, he’s going to be missing those Friday night Elvis concerts that he plays all the time.
“Elvis is alive and well and living in North Korea.”