DOUBLE DEFECTOR CROSSES THE DMZ BACK INTO NORTH KOREA
South Korean authorities identified the defector who crossed the heavily guarded Demilitarised Zone (“DMZ”) into North Korea on New Year’s Day as the same former North Korean gymnast who defected to South Korea by jumping over a 10-feet-high fence at the DMZ in November 2020. It is reported that the defector was taken away by three North Korean soldiers upon entering North Korea.
The defector was reportedly working under poor conditions as a janitor and was struggling to adapt to his new life in Seoul. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency further stated that the man had previously shown “longing for home” and “social maladjustment”, which alerted the local police station to raise the possibility of redefection twice in June 2021. However, police authorities did not find sufficient evidence indicating the man’s intention to return to the North, thus had merely ordered the local station to gather more evidence and monitor him more closely.
The Ministry of Unification revealed that 30 defectors crossed the DMZ into North Korea from 2012 to 2021, though more may have returned by other means. South Korean lawmaker Ji Seong-ho who was once a defector from the North himself shared that the majority of defectors end up in the South’s lowest income brackets. Ryu Hyun-woo, a former North Korean Deputy Ambassador to Kuwait who had defected to the South, also commented on struggling to secure a job with a degree from Kim Il Sung University and his in-depth knowledge of North Korea’s economy and society.
Meanwhile, a defector told NK News that the New Year border crosser may have had “other personal issues” beyond just a longing for home that drove him to return to the North, and cited the case of Park Jong Suk, who had reportedly redefected for the safety of her son whom she left behind in North Korea.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/north-korea-defector-crosses-dmz/
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/02/asia/north-korea-south-korea-border-crossing-intl/index.html
NORTH KOREA PLANS TO GRANT AMNESTY TO PROMOTE THEIR LEADER’S LOVE FOR THE PEOPLE
According to a high-ranking source from Daily NK, North Korean authorities have ordered to issue special pardons to prisoners at the Ministry of Social Security’s political prisons and labour camps to commemorate the late North Korean leader Kim Jong-il's 80th birthday on 16 February.
In the past, it was common practice for powerful classes to bribe cadres at the Ministry of Social Security to pardon family members and friends when the authorities announce their plan to issue special pardons. However, the current head of the Ministry, Jan Jong-nam, had warned that corruption in the amnesty process would be sternly punished and the same has been conducted in secrecy since his appointment in July.
It is reported that political prisons would transfer model prisoners to facilities with better conditions or release 15 family members per prison. As for labour camps, sentences may be reduced between six months to six years.
However, the amnesty does not apply to the following groups of prisoners: those sentenced to maximum sentences, those sentenced to six months of labour, those in detention awaiting a trial following their preliminary hearing, and those at political prisons run by the Ministry of State Security who never receive pardons or sentence reductions.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of State Security plans to launch more crackdowns to make up for the loss in numbers, as political prisons and labour camps earn from putting inmates to work in farms and factories.
FEMALE NORTH KOREAN SOLDIER TURNED SUICIDAL AFTER REPEATED SEXUAL ASSAULTS
A female North Korean telephone operator at the headquarters of the Seventh Corp in South Hamgyong Province was in critical condition after she attempted to commit suicide following alleged sexual assaults by five of her superiors in five separate occasions, one of whom was reported to be a high-ranking cadre in the General Political Department. The soldier (identified as “A”) suffered from severe blood loss and had lost consciousness in hospital due to donor blood shortage.
She left a 12-page suicide note in the form of a “Petition Letter”, with a view to inform the authorities of everything she had experienced in army since she was enlisted at the age of 17.
During her six years in the military, A stated that she was repeatedly sexually assaulted by a political officer in his early 40s (identified as “Kim”), who had told A that he would take care of her, but had cut contact completely upon entering a “political university” for military training.
The second alleged assailant was the deputy head of the manpower department, whom A claimed to have raped her in his office and continued to sexually assault her afterwards.
A applied to a political university, hoping to stop further sexual assaults suffered by fellow soldiers. However, the head of the cadre department (identified as “Jo”) omitted her application and told her to join him at an office in a bunker if she wished to be accepted into university. Sensing what might happen, A borrowed a mobile phone from a close friend in attempt to collect evidence of the assault. Jo was reportedly dressed only in his underwear and demanded sex while offering A a stack of one hundred KPW 5,000 bills (approx. $555 USD) and promising her that he would pay for her university tuition. When A refused, Jo tore her clothes off and found the mobile phone recording their conversation, so he beat her and threatened A’s friend to keep quiet.
Not long after, a General Political Bureau cadre lured A to his room and allegedly attempted to rape her, during which she suffered injuries from resisting and she had later admitted herself into a military hospital.
During her stay at the hospital, a major in charge of the internal medicine department allegedly raped her after giving her sleeping medication. This was the last straw for A, which led to her attempted suicide.
Military authorities conducted investigations in relation to her allegations, but the assailants have so far received no punishment other than temporary suspensions or transfers.
HUNGRY FAMILY OF FORMER SOLDIER COLLAPSED IN UNHEATED HOME
According to a source in North Hamgyong Province, the family of a former military officer, Chae, who had worked on the frontline for around 10 years had collapsed in their home due to starvation.
After leaving the military in 2017, Chae returned to his hometown with his two children to sell alcohol, cooking oil and kkwabaegi (Korean-style twisted doughnuts). However, the family’s business suffered when the North Korean authorities began to crackdown on street and alleyway businesses. Most days, they were unable to earn any money at all while hiding from local police and inspection teams, thus leading them further into debt.
When the inminban group leader found the family collapsed due to hunger in their unheated home, she called for every member of the organisation to donate whatever they could to the family, “even 100 grams of rice, corn, or anything else that can be eaten”. It is reported that Chae and his family are now surviving on the 3.3 lbs (1.5kg) of rice, 4.4 lbs (2kg) of corn, and 2.2 lbs (1kg) of corn soup donated by their neighbours.
The source added that “[the] family of a former soldier – someone who should receive protection from the government – almost died of starvation...it’s unclear how they’ll survive after [the donated food] has been eaten”.
Source:
https://www.dailynk.com/english/family-former-soldier-found-collapsed-due-hunger-unheated-home/
