A soldier with the “Storm Corps” deserted his post after shooting a superior to death, leading authorities in the region to lockdown several areas on the Sino-North Korean border as they continue to search for him, Daily NK has learned.
A source in North Hamgyong Province told Daily NK on Wednesday that the soldier had shot his unit commander to death with an automatic rifle while on patrol along the border in Jongsong, North Hamgyong Province, on Oct. 22. After the shooting, the soldier “left his rifle in the sentry box and ran off with just the magazine.” The source said that the authorities issued a wanted order for the soldier right after the incident.
According to the source, the soldier was in his early 20s and had been continuously tormented by the head of his unit.
In fact, on the day of the shooting, the unit commander had disappeared when he was scheduled to patrol – ostensibly because he had business at a local resident’s home – and ordered the soldier to patrol instead. When he returned, he took the soldier’s padded military coat for himself and went to the sentry box to sleep, telling the subordinate to patrol his entire route for him.
The unit commander had usually treated the soldier like a servant, lying in the next bunk in the barracks to torment him, making him wash his socks, foot wrappings and underwear and subjecting him to beatings and other cruelties whenever he was chewed out by superiors or felt bad.
The source said the unit commander “did these things even in view of other soldiers,” and that because of this, other members of the unit are testifying that the soldier, “angered by what had happened on the day of the incident,” shot dead his commander after he could no longer bear “the built-up resentment.”
Meanwhile, the Storm Corps tried hard to capture the runaway soldier immediately after the incident occurred. The unit locked down surrounding areas, but they were reportedly unable to find him after several days.
“Given the circumstances at the time, they didn’t believe he had escaped across the border, so they thought they could capture him in 24 hours by intensifying the alert status [of soldiers] nearby. But they couldn’t find a single clue [to his whereabouts],” he said.
Ultimately, the incident was reported up the chain of command on Tuesday. Belatedly learning of the situation, North Korean authorities boosted the alert status along the entire border of North Hamgyong Province and ordered the Ministry of State Security and police stations to keep an eye out for the soldier, who they believed may still appear at his family’s home in Sariwon, North Hwanghae Province.
The source said the incident was a direct cause of a recent lockdown in Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, and other areas on the border. “The Storm Corps tried to solve the situation themselves but they couldn’t, so they reported the incident to their superiors,” said the source. “Only after realizing that [the soldier] may have crossed the border by that time did [the authorities] belatedly order the border [in those areas] sealed.”
Members of a General Political Bureau inspection team have reportedly been dispatched to the soldier’s Storm Corps unit in Jongsong. The General Political Bureau sent the Storm Corps to the area to protect the border; now, however, the inspection team believes the area has become a “lawless zone.” They have begun efforts to strengthen discipline with the knowledge that the survival training of members of the Storm Corps is “so good they are difficult to catch if they flee into the mountains or cross into China.”
The source said Ministry of State Security officers have been visiting border guard units nearby the Storm Corps unit to tell them to “take measures to prevent shootings and illegal border crossings.”
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