Defector Arrested for Murder

As linked below, a North Korean has been arrested in China for murdering three people in Seoul in 2003. I don’t know whether the man is guilty, of course, but I wouldn’t be surprised that some North Koreans turn to crime, given the fact that North Korea is a society that inculcates its citizens with violence and blurs the moral absolutes that protect individual rights. Given that a certain percentage of human beings are inherently evil, I suppose the conditioning will stick in those cases.

What’s ironic is that because South Korea is now doing everything it can to keep defectors out, this defector may have found the best remaining way a North Korean can get into South Korea anymore–extradition. If this man had a twin brother, and the twin was the very paragon of virtue, paternal love, and hard work, he’d be facing a one-way ticket to torture, starvation, disease, and death for no greater crime than being born North Korean. His evil twin–presuming he’s fortunate enough to be convicted of triple murder–is looking at 15-20 years of three hots and a cot. By the time he’s released, there probably won’t be a North Korea, in which case he’d be free to drive up to Haengyong or Yodok to visit the mass grave where his brother’s remains would be interred.

There is a rich harvest of bitter irony in today’s Korea.