With the worst of this year’s North Korean famine concentrated in southern coastal areas, flight across the Tumen River to China is no longer the easiest way to flee North Korea. This famine map, courtesy of Good Friends, is instructive (click for full size):
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In the past, North Koreans have fled to South Korea by sea in onesies and twosies. The first attempt at mass defection by sea ended with disastrous results — the South Koreans sent them back to North Korea, where all 22 were shot.
Today comes word of a slow but steady trickle of defections by sea.
Ten North Koreans have defected by boat to the South this month, coming in a total of six trips, four of which were reportedly taken in stolen motor boats. [....]
More than 2,000 North Koreans came to the South in 2006 and 3,000 defections are expected this year according to the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. [Chosun Ilbo]Â
The North Koreans have reportedly reacted by keeping a close watch on who boards its fishing boats, and how much fuel they’re putting in the tank.
If you want to read more about what the North Koreans are fleeing from – purges, famine, and unsustainable human excrement quotas (!) seem like good ones – I’ve posted a few Good Friends updates from inside North Korea below the fold.
The summaries are from Good Friends; the actual newsletters follow.
No. 146:
l An Elderly Resident laments of Sinuiju, “What Happened to the Old Fame?”
l Prolonged Weakening of Sinuiju’s Economy
l Hamheung City Pharmacy College Caught Producing “Ice”
l Six Chungjin residents were tried for belonging to Anti-Socialist Conscience groups
l Several munitions workers in Eunduk County fled after selling telephone line that had been illegally cut
No. 147
l City of Hoeryong Hit by a Whirlwind of Triple-Layered Investigations
l New Policy Set After the Site Visit To Heungnam Fertilizer Plant
l Severe Damage on Corn from Cold Weather in Saebyul County
l Rising Oil Prices Keep Fishing Boats at Harbors
l Sinuiju, Having Huge Difficulty Getting Even Undesirable Jobs
l Residents of Pihyeon County, Earning Their Living through Selling Candles
No. 148
l Even Half of transplanting of rice seedling in Wangjaesan Farm Not Yet Finished
l Setting fire to his brother’s house in a fit of anger
l Breaking into a Neighbor’s Home Results in Murder
l Committing Murder while Persuading Absentees to Come to Work
l Broken Hearted over Discrimination against My Poverty-Stricken Country
[...] (Via OFK) Thanks to crackdowns in China and famine in coastal areas, the ocean is becoming a popular escape route among defectors. Ten North Koreans have defected by boat to the South this month, coming in a total of six trips, four of which were reportedly taken in stolen motor boats. [...]
[...] Source : One Free korea. [...]
[...] But let’s take a step back. I am not claiming that food prices are falling–the Daily NK is reporting it. Good Friends is reporting, along with most other credible commentators, famine conditions in North Korea’s southern provinces.  I am not sure how to reconcile these claims.  True, the Daily NK reports lower market prices in the northern provinces and Good Friends claims famine conditions in the southern provinces–and these are not necessarily mutually exclusive statements. But believing both of them to be simultaneously true requires North Korea’s grain markets to be highy inefficient.  I am not prepared to accept that either. [...]