5 Mar
2012
5 Mar
'12
11:03 a.m.
North Korean Guards Lure, Nab Potential Defectors
March 5, 2012—North Korean guards along the border with China are inducing citizens to
defect and then catching them in a bid to secure attractive government rewards, according
to sources.
Border guards who apprehend potential defectors are offered educational benefits or
employment opportunities upon discharge from duty, along with membership in the powerful
ruling Workers' Party of Korea, the sources said.
Several of the 40-odd North Koreans detained recently in northern Yanggang Province in
their attempt to cross over to China had been lured into the "trap" set by the
border guards, according to a North Korean woman defector, whose family was among those
caught.
The woman, identifying herself only as Kim and who defected to South Korea five years ago,
told RFA that a border guard, who was a family friend, had offered to help her family get
across the North Korea border with China.
Little did she realize that the border guard, who was "like a son" to her
family," would double-cross and detain them while they were attempting to cross the
Yalu River, which borders China, she said.
"The idea that someone could induce them to escape [and then inform the authorities]
didn’t even cross my mind," Kim said.
"[But] when I [checked with] some sources, I found out that the guards arrested them
after luring them," she said.
Rewards
As North Korean authorities strengthened border security after dictator Kim Jong Il’s
death in December, border guards who nabbed potential defectors were offered rewards by
his successor son Kim Jong Un's regime, sources said.
They were offered a choice of receiving college recommendations or being placed at a key
fruit farm upon their discharge from duty, along with from being accepted as members of
the Workers Party, a source from Yanggang Province told RFA.
The farm lies along the large Taedong River, which runs through the North Korean capital,
Pyongyang.
Many North Korean defectors who successfully cross the border into China have been
detained by Chinese security forces and deported back home by Beijing, which considers
them economic migrants instead of refugees.
Nearly 40 North Koreans were detained in February as they crossed the border into China in
separate incidents, according to reports.
Executions
The U.N. refugee agency UNHCR and human rights watchdog Amnesty International have called
on Beijing not to send the North Koreans back. Rights groups say they face harsh
punishment, including torture or even death in their homeland.
Seoul has repeatedly urged Beijing to treat fugitives from the North as refugees and not
to repatriate them. China says they are economic migrants and not refugees deserving
protection.
More than 21,700 North Koreans have fled to the South since the 1950-1953 Korean war, most
of them in recent years. They first escape to China, hide out, and then travel to a third
country to seek resettlement in the South.
Reported by Moon Sung Hwi for RFA's Korean service. Translated by Kang Min Kyung.
Written in English by Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
View this story online at:
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/defectors-03052012095110.html
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