On the 16th, the military’s CCTV camera found a defection man in his 20s through the Goseong coast of Gangwon-do, and sounded a warning sound, but the watchdog showed no response. It is pointed out that through this defection, a total insolvency was revealed in the military authorities’ alert posture.
![Members of the Army's Elementary Measures Unit are conducting search and alert training following the discovery of unknown objects on the coast. [육군]](https://i0.wp.com/pds.joins.com/news/component/htmlphoto_mmdata/202102/21/6fc48166-7f2f-42a3-be6b-98640889e128.jpg?w=560&ssl=1)
Members of the Army’s Elementary Measures Unit are conducting search and alert training following the discovery of unknown objects on the coast. [육군]
According to military authorities on the 21st, at around 4:20 am on the 16th, the 22nd Army Division captured him four times before recognizing the North Korean defector through CCTV at the civilian control line (civil control line) checkpoint. The first capture was past 1 am. At that time, North Korean defectors crossed the East Sea Northern Limit Line (NLL) and climbed to Goseong Beach by swimming.
The military’s scientific surveillance system’s CCTV camera found a North Korean defector, and a pop-up window popped up on the control room monitor and an alarm went off. The defector’s appearance appeared on the monitor for about 5 seconds.
If an object that appears to be a person appears on the CCTV, the situation room should report to the upper part and a waiting group for 5 minutes should be dispatched. However, at the time, the military did nothing. I didn’t even look back at the green screen in the control room.
The military officials judged that it was because the guard missed the North Korean defector even with his eyes open. The guard was awake at the time and was found to have worked normally. A military official said, “It seems that the guards thought it was a false alarm,” and said, “Even if the wind blows hard or catches a bird, the system issues an alarm.”
For the next three hours, the defector was able to walk along Road 7 to the checkpoint of the former civilian control line, more than 5 km away from the landing point, for 3 hours.
The military authorities investigated the drainage channel under the coastal iron fence where the North Korean defectors entered, and the barrier was corroded by the sea water. It is said that it has been more than 10 years since the barrier was installed. This is why North Korean defectors were able to easily break the barrier and escape.
Military authorities announced that they will inspect and reinforce the drainage channels of all coastal and river railroad fences after the incident in which a North Korean defector in his 20s visited North Korea through a drainage channel in Ganghwa Island in Incheon last July. A military official said, “Because the drainage passage under the coastal iron fence is close to the minefield, we know that the inspection, let alone reinforcement, has not been properly performed.”
Kim Yong-hyun, former head of the Joint Chiefs of Operations, said, “Since last year, there has been no improvement at all even though I have said that I will fix each time a large and small warning incident occurs one after another. If so, it means that there is a fundamental problem with the alert posture.” He said, “It is time to fix the alert posture with the determination to start over from scratch.”
Reporter Lee Cheol-jae [email protected]