“Under the Warm Care of a Relevant Organ?”

A South Korean man who worked at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor unit and more recently at a pig farm has defected to the North by walking across the heavily mined border, the communist state’s media said on Tuesday. [Reuters]

Something tells me he’ll be dreaming of those little piggies soon enough.

“He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed,” the North’s KCNA news agency said. It identified the defector as Kang Dong-rim, 30.

“He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ,” KCNA said.

No inappropriate snickering, please. This is a family site.

Remarkably, Kang crossed the world’s most heavily mined and fortified border without exploding or getting himself shot by either side. So really, this is a case of natural selection on two separate, mutually contradictory levels. So what was Kang’s motive?

The South Korean military statement said Kang had formerly served in an army division near where the fence was found cut and he has been on a police wanted list following his alleged involvement in an assault case in September. [AP]

The AP notes that at least two other South Koreans have attempted to defect North in recent years, sadly, none of them members of Hanchongryon.