Kim Seon Hee, a high-schooler, recently stayed up all night crying because there had been no news from her father since he went to China to pick up her mother some months ago. Her father had worked hard to collect the money for his wife’s escape. Seon Hee was overjoyed to think of the family all coming together again. However, she has been leading a hellish life since all contact stopped.
Concern has been growing recently within the defector community in South Korea over suspicions that the National Security Agency (NSA) is seizing defectors settled in South Korea when they visit China and taking them back to the North. This is because of a rising number of instances in which contact with defectors is lost once they are in China.
One defector, “Miss A”, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Daily NK on the 11th, “A female defector I knew quite well recently went looking for her sister, but it’s been three months now without contact.”
She went on, “I know of several instances like this with other defectors. It seems like the NSA kidnapped her.”
Another defector, Miss B said, “My family in North Korea said they would send my mother to the border area. I went to get her from the river myself; we can’t trust anyone so they asked me to do it. But I thought it would be a dangerous situation and asked a broker to do it for me instead. On the day of the appointment I heard that they did not manage to meet at the Tumen River.”
Miss B later heard that there was nobody at her family home, and that there had been no contact. She said the possibility is high that the NSA, which monitors families of defectors, was involved. Miss B was shocked by the incident and could not work for several days thereafter.
It is difficult to gauge the exact number of people who go missing in this way. However, defectors believe the number is increasing. Most follow a pattern: after calling family in North Korea, they go to China and are not heard from again.
Some of the cases eventually become public. Some of those who went back to North Korea last year, Park Jong Suk, for example, did not go voluntarily. Other defectors are on record saying that they had no choice but to return in the face of pressure put on their families.
Commenting on the renewed danger, a South Korean police oficial said, “If this type of thing is to be prevented, it’s important that defectors trust the police and ask for help from those in charge of them. Defectors are continually spied on and restricted by the security forces in North Korea, so there is a tendency to mistrust the police here, too. However, the judgment of the defectors is cloudy, and they must let the police know of threats to their personal safety.”
“South Korea has freedom of movement and travel, so it’s difficult to restrict travel to China, the sole route back into North Korea,” he added. “Therefore, defectors should always maintain contact with the police officers in charge of their security. In particular, it’s good to talk to the police when leaving for the border area with North Korea.”
On the 8th, Daily NK reported that the North Korean authorities have recently dispatched new agents to China, some in their late teens and early twenties, for the purpose of tracking defectors more effectively.
