It is not yet clear what it was that persuaded Kim Kwang Hyok and Ko Jong Nam to re-defect to North Korea in September of this year. The couple’s explanation, delivered at a press conference in Pyongyang on the 8th, was that they were conned into defecting in the first place. “South Chosun is a spoiled, rotten society,” Kim declared, adding that he and his wife had rapidly become disillusioned by its cruel and unfeeling nature.
Yet, as the linked article shows, this is not a wholly convincing narrative. Kim’s family and friends living in South Korea’s third city of Daegu believe he was simply reading a script he had been given. Most objective bystanders would have trouble disagreeing.
It was shown clearly back in June with the case of another re-defector, lone grandmother Park Jung Sook (aka Park In Sook), that South Korea should consider itself duty bound to carefully investigate such cases in order to establish what exactly the North Korean authorities are offering to defectors (or threatening them with) in exchange for their testimony. Park, lest we should forget, had been living a normal life in South Korea until she suddenly headed back upon hearing heartbreaking news from the North: her son, previously a teacher in privileged Pyongyang, had been cast into rural exile with his family.
It has been confirmed via multiple channels that the North Korean National Security Agency is now working to lure defectors in South Korea back to North Korea, and has been doing so since last year. The policy is just the latest addition to their anti-defection armory, coming in the wake of enhanced border security, harsh punishments for those who attempt to defect, the exiling of families of those who do manage to leave, and propaganda rallies to heighten hostility against South Korea.
Re-defectors are needed in the North because, despite Pyongyang’s propaganda offensive, the people already know very well the economic disparity between the two Koreas. They have learned all about it from people visiting China, defecting relatives and friends, and have confirmed it thanks to the South Korean dramas they like to watch. The authorities have little choice but to accept this fact, and focus instead on the discrimination faced by the traitorous defectors, which is exactly the issue that Kim was pointing to when he said during the press conference that “kind human feelings cannot be found in anywhere” in “unjust and unequal” South Korea.
An NSA official from Musan County was cited in an article published by Daily NK this morning saying, “What kind of person would come back of their own free will?” Let us be clear. If the North Korean authorities lured back this couple and their toddler son then it is bad enough. If they were threatened it is worse still. The South Korean government needs to address this issue, and ensure that it is doing its duty to protect some of its newest citizens but, more than this, North Korea needs to stop wasting its scarce resources on planning ways to convince people who have already left the country to return, and instead focus its energies on finding ways to improve the lot of the overwhelming majority who are still there.
