Despite intensified security along the China-North Korea border, an increasing number of people are trying to defect from North Korea due to economic difficulties sparked by the continued closure of the country’s borders.
According to a Daily NK source in North Korea on Friday, two men – cousins, who are both in their 20s – were caught earlier this month while trying to cross the river into China from Chunggang County, Chagang Province.
The man in his early 20s was a soldier doing his military service. Despite his status as a soldier, he was reportedly starving due to poor rations, so he planned to go to China and earn some money before returning home.
He convinced his cousin — who had no source of income even in his late 20s — to join him, but the border patrol caught them almost as soon as they entered the Yalu River, arresting them on the spot.
The authorities sent the older cousin to a forced labor camp, while the younger one who planned the defection and encouraged his older cousin to join him was sent to a political prison camp.
The source said the younger cousin was punished more severely because he was a serving soldier, and because he led the defection attempt.
MANY SUCCESSFUL ESCAPES ACROSS THE BORDER
However, many North Koreans appear to have successfully escaped across the border into China.
According to a Daily NK source in China recently, a woman in her early 40s defected from Hyesan, Yanggang Province, to Changbai, Jilin Province, in late November.
She was caught and nearly arrested by the border patrol while crossing the river, but she bribed the soldiers to let her go.
North Korean authorities are still strongly cracking down on smuggling and defections, but smugglers and defectors can reportedly bribe their way out of trouble for RMB 5,000 (around USD 718).
The source said that, depending on the situation, soldiers sometimes take even less money to turn a blind eye to defections. They often take money to conceal defections because times are tough for them, too.
Collusion between illegal border crossers and border guards may explain why smuggling operations have recently skyrocketed in the China-North Korea border region.
For example, Daily NK reported earlier this month that a North Korean patrol boat fled back to North Korea after it was fired upon by Chinese police during a smuggling operation.
Daily NK’s source said that with the border remaining shut despite North Korea’s difficult economic situation, many people are trying to defect or smuggle even at the risk of their own lives.
“[Many] soldiers are engaging in smuggling or taking bribes to overlook defections, which means that the government will have a tough time trying to stop this activity even if it intensifies crackdowns,” he said.
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