S. Korean Intel Questioned Executed Refugees in Groups
The 22 North Koreans found drifting in South Korean waters in the West Sea on Feb. 8 were interrogated by South Korean intelligence agents in groups of five or six, rather than one at a time as regulations require, it was learned on Tuesday. [Chosun Ilbo]
This was a violation of National Intelligence Service rules. Richardson, who has debriefed North Korean defectors, nailed it days ago when he explained why North Koreans must only be questioned individually:
If they were asked as a group, the interrogators basically ensured they’d answer no; if any answered yes for the rest to hear and somehow they were all sent back to North Korea, that person would have been guaranteed being sent to a concentration camp or executed. This is – or should be – absolute basic knowledge to anyone dealing with potential North Korean defectors. [DPRK Studies]
After just four or five hours of that and a North Korean government request, 22 people who thought they’d made it to freedom were on their way back to face a firing squad.
Maybe they didn’t want the defectors to “get in the way of the intra-Korean dialogue, which is going smoothly?”