Defector Updates

Much news today on defectors. The Marmot’s (least-) favorite newspaper, the Sankei Shimbun, reports that North Korea is rounding up potential defectors in the future liberated zones border regions near China. Those who managed to get into foreign embassies and consulates last month are still filtering out of China through fourth countries.

It turns out the U.N. has a special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea, and if he existed before today, it was because I never heard one thing that he’d said about the matter. Today, however, the South China Morning Post (from Taiwan) reports that he’s criticized the repatriation of defectors back to North Korea. He didn’t mention you-know-who by name, but we know who.

The big Korean newspapers are talking about a North Korean defector who was allegedly working as a spy for the North. Here’s the Korea Times, the Joongang Ilbo, and the Chosun Ilbo, which offers what it seems to consider a conclusive explanation. The Times story has this beaut of a quote from a South Korean official, a true blinded-by-the-Sunshine classic:

Defectors living in the South who go back to the North to visit family members sometimes trigger a chain of defections organized by brokers or human rights activists. ‘We oppose this kind of `defection project’ that might affect the North Korean regime,’ Chung said. ‘Bringing North Koreans out of their country does not match with our North Korea policies.’ He said the government was considering imposing limitations on defectors’ overseas trips. ‘But the government has not been able to make a final decision due to the complicated situation,’ he said, referring to related human rights issues.

Note to self: I’m going to have to start taking Norbert’s e-mails more seriously, because this is the second time this week that he’s “scooped” the new South Korean hard line on defectors and activists. Methinks Norbert has some sources. Norbert–for the love of G-d, please find some kind person to edit your grammar and spelling and put these messages into attachments for ease of posting! End whine.

But back to the story–if this “defector” was a spy, he’s been uncharacteristically talkative to the press and the cops, and must have slept or cheated his way through Get-Your-Story-Straight 101 at the Pyongyang Spy Academy. The factual root of the story is that the man allegedly went back to North Korea without permission, something that other defectors have also done to see or retrieve family members. Sorry, that doesn’t prove espionage to me, particularly as one who has plenty of experience with the Korean National Police and the quality of their questioning and statement-taking skills. That doesn’t mean that he’s not a spy, and it certainly doesn’t mean that North Korea wouldn’t resort to sending spies out clothed as defectors (I suspect they would, in fact), it just means that this particularly story is too riddled with uncertainties, unknowables, and contradictions for me to draw a conclusion.