Families of the 13 North Korean restaurant
workers who defected as a group to South Korea from their posts in China are
openly blaming North Korea’s State Security Department [SSD] for the incident.
North Korean authorities have aired interviews of the families criticizing the
South Korean government on Uriminzokkiri TV, but away from the cameras, the
families are directing their animosity at domestic authorities.
In a telephone conversation with Daily NK
on April 29, a source from South Pyongan Province reported that the recent
defection of the North Korean restaurant employees has put Pyongyang’s State
Security Department on the defensive. In the past, the families of the
defectors would have been implicated and punished, but this time the SSD is
being subjected to strong protests and counter-accusations by the families that
the relevant SSD agents caused the incident by breaking security protocols.
Additional sources in Pyongyang
corroborated this news.
“The defectors’ relatives in Pyongyang
have strongly resisted attempts to blame them,” the source said, directly
telling SSD personnel in the capital that their kids [the restaurant employees]
weren’t like that when they departed for China, so the SSD is responsible for
the events that transpired because the defection was caused by poor management,
and it’s totally different from a normal case of defection.”
She added that some parents have demanded
that the authorities send them to South Korea to retrieve their daughters
followed by irate comments that “the SSD cadres responsible will never admit
that the incident was caused by their neglect.”
News of the incident has spread widely to
many other residents, who are generally more supportive of the parents’
position than the SSD. “Residents are, on the whole, unanimous in their view
that since the incident arose from the ineptitude of the local SSD officer, it
is completely unfair to ask the families to take responsibility,” the source
said, further adding that because the North Korean authorities are concerned
about provoking unrest, the incident was not covered in the domestic media
until April 28. However, despite efforts to suppress the gravity of the
incident, the information has continued to spread widely.
“The rumor mill has been spinning, urged on
by listeners secretly tuning into radio broadcasts from South Korea and word of
mouth from the families of Pyongyang cadres,” she noted.
In particular, the assertion by the North
Korean authorities that South Korea’s National Intelligence Service kidnapped
the restaurant workers is not being well received by residents.
“North Korean residents are jokingly
asking, ‘In what world would it be feasible to simultaneously kidnap not one or
two, but thirteen people?’ and, ‘If the conditions were good, would they have
defected as a group? They must have left because they were feeling
disillusioned by the actions of the authorities,’” reported the source.
She further noted that upon returning to
Pyongyang, the seven colleagues of the restaurant defectors were interrogated
by the SSD for many days. They have since been released, but it remains likely
that they will be taken in again for questioning.
“A rumor is circulating that the remaining
seven young female workers are going to have a tough time,” the source
asserted, adding that the residents are saying that the authorities are not
going to leave them alone until they know “each and every detail” about what
happened in China leading up to the group defection.
She continued, “Residents are saying that
if these seven workers can’t convince the authorities that they are completely
free of any wrongdoing during interrogations, even for things like watching a
South Korean drama, punishment is likely.”
