18 Caught Attempting Defection in Yangkang

A total of 18 members of seven families from Bocheon in Yangkang Province were caught trying to escape North Korea across the Yalu River in mid March and are now under investigation, a source from the area revealed this morning.

“Upon being arrested by border security guards, they were sent immediately to a Defense Security Command inspection group dispatched to the province for anti-socialist inspections,” the source explained.

The focus of the investigation allegedly centers on a 29-year old man known only as Shin, a worker at a gold mine in Shinheung belonging to the National Security Agency, as a note criticizing the North Korean regime was supposedly discovered on him during a body search.

The note is said to have contained several phrases harshly punishable by the North Korean authorities, including, “As the way ahead is tough, defecting is the only way to survive,” “The Chosun people are not good, rather foolish,” and, “Heading for the South in search of freedom.”

Theses phrases are all sarcastic imitations of political slogans of the late 1990s; “Even though the way ahead is tough, let’s go forward smiling,” for example, and, “Our people are really good people.”

In particular, Kim Jong Il once made the comment “Our people are really good people,” during an on-site inspection in the early 2000s. North Korean defectors say they see his words as complimenting the restraint of a people which did not express any discontent against the regime even during the Arduous March and ensuing chronic economic difficulties. That is why Shin’s ironic reinterpretations are unlikely to be met with leniency by the authorities, which officially brook no criticism of the supreme leader.

Agreeing, the source concluded, “According to what one official from the inspecting organ told me, since neighbors living in the same area sought to defect, torture is highly likely for the purpose of finding the person who incited the defections and the writer of the note,” and added that surveillance of local residents and border security have both been notably toughened since the case occurred.