Seowook “A defection man, Vietnam victim of military post in fear of returning North Korea”

Defense Minister Seo-wook announced on the 23rd that a North Korean man, who traveled to the East Sea on the 16th, had avoided the military post because he thought he would return him to North Korea. At the National Assembly’s National Defense Committee on that day, when asked, “Why did a North Korean man escape the military post?” “I replied. “That’s why they said they were going to go to the private house,” he added. “The soldiers are armed, so they might have thought that they could be shot.”

Assemblyman Ha said, “In North Korea, North Korean defectors are falsely propagating that they will return them to Korea. That evidence is the person who came this time,” he said. “Even if they want to escape, there are people who cannot because of doubt that the military is not on the side of the defectors.” He then emphasized that “we need to deal with this problem.” The South Korean government forcibly deported two North Koreans captured in the East Sea in November of last year to North Korea.

“When did you get the first report?” Rep. Yoon Joo-gyeong said, “I knew it a little past 6 am (on the 16th).” I think I thought about the situation like an executive who commute to work.”

The military authorities have released the results of their own investigation of the failure of the’swim defection’ border. According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the 23rd, the military was caught by surveillance cameras five times immediately after a North Korean man landed, and did not even confirm even though two alerts were issued. The military previously did not even know that there was a drainage channel under the coastal iron fence, the path of North Korean men’s travel.

According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, a North Korean man landed on the shore near the Unification Observation Deck in Goseong-gun, Gangwon-do at around 1:05 am on the 16th (the border area of ​​the 22nd Army Division). The military estimated that the man wore a wet suit and swam for about 6 hours to South Korea. He removed his wetsuit and flippers between the rocks not far from the landing point, and then walked down 400m toward the south. In the process, the movement of a man was captured five times by four close-range surveillance cameras of the military. Two of these even sounded a beep. An official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “The video surveillance officer, who was working on another at the time, thought it was a false alarm and did not check and turned off both the notification windows.” It turned out that the officer to oversee it was right behind him, but he missed it while talking on the phone with the unit.

Secretary Seo Wook “It seems to have been mistaken for a commuter executive”

After breaking through the military’s primary border, a North Korean man discovered a ditch under a railroad fence. At the entrance of a drainage passage with a diameter of 90 cm and a length of 26 m, a rusty barrier was left damaged. In the end, the man could easily crawl through the drainage ditch and get inside the civilian control line (civil control line).

Military authorities admitted to neglect of management. After the North Korean defectors defected to Ganghwa Island in July of last year, the entire military inspected the drainage channel, but the drainage channel was not on the management list. An official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “In the course of the field investigation, we discovered three additional drainage channels that have not been managed.” “There is a high barrier in the area, and the drainage channel is not protruding, so it seems that we could not confirm it.” However, a former military official who knows the area said, “There are no unidentified mine areas there. He said, “If I had patrolled the coast hard, I would have found the drainage ditch easily.”

A North Korean man reappeared in the military’s surveillance equipment around 4:12 am, about 2 hours and 20 minutes after passing through the drainage ditch. A man was detected three times at 1-minute intervals by CCTV installed on the fence of the Navy Joint Operations Support Center 5 km south of the drainage channel. The alarm did not go off and no guards were found.

The man who broke the perimeter network three times is again caught by CCTV at the Jejin Checkpoint around 4:16. It was only then that the checkpoint servicemen reported that “I found an unidentified person.” But that was all. An official of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “In the case of the civil communist action, we initiated an initial action on our own, but we failed to secure the identity.” Has been issued.”

I wonder if you can swim 6 hours in the middle of winter

A North Korean man was found sleeping on the 16th at 7:27 am, wearing thick padding and covering fallen leaves in a hill 100m away from the checkpoint. The question arises whether it is possible to escape from North Korea by swimming for six hours on a cold day with strong winds. An official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “It was investigated that (this man) had a side job related to fishing and was used to the sea. I would have been able to swim for a long time.” “It is judged that we were able to maintain body temperature by wearing thick padding and socks in a baggy wetsuit where the neck and the body are separated.” , The seawater temperature on the day was 6-8 degrees,” he explained. However, military data show that even wearing a waterproof suit, the survival time at sea water temperature of 8 degrees is only 2 hours and 15 minutes, and at 6 degrees, it is only 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Military authorities said the man was “presumed to be a defector and was a civilian.” However, a government source raised a question, saying, “It is difficult to compare with North Korean fishermen at the time of the Samcheok Port wooden boat return incident,” and “Padding, wetsuits and flippers seem to be difficult to obtain in North Korea.

Reporters Cheoljae Lee and Sangjin Kim [email protected]