Posted on 02/16/2008 10:01:05 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
22 N. Korean drifters executed after return home: source
SEOUL, Feb. 17 (Yonhap) -- A group of 22 North Koreans who had been returned home after their boats drifted into South Korean waters were all immediately executed by North Korean authorities, a source here said Sunday.
Two fishing boats carrying the 22 North Koreans, including 14 women and three teenagers, drifted into the western waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island on Feb. 8 and were sent back home after South Korean interrogators found they had no intention to defect, the National Intelligence Service said in a press release on Saturday. The North Koreans were residents of Kangnyeong County, North Korea's southern coastal province of South Hwanghae, who went to sea to collect clams and oysters without authorization from the North Korean maritime agency, the intelligence service said.
The report of their return by South Korean authorities came after the mass circulation Chosun Ilbo broke the report in its weekend edition.
A source well-versed in North Korea told Yonhap News Agency, however, that the drifters were all executed immediately after returning home early last week. The provincial branch of North Korea's National Security Agency shot and killed them secretly, the source said.
Of the group, 16 were extended family members and eight others were their neighbors, according to the South Korean intelligence agency.
"A rumor spread in South Hwanghae Province that (the security agency) secretly executed the 22 people immediately after they were returned," the source said.
"People in the province are shocked by the fact that all of the 22 people were shot and killed with no exception, such as being sent to a prison camp," the source said.
South Korean intelligence officials, contacted by Yonhap News Agency, said they were not aware of the rumored execution and would try to verify it.
South Korean intelligence acknowledged there is a possibility that the returnees were executed because of their unauthorized fishing.
"I'm not aware of whether they were executed or not, but that's possible because they went fishing with no authorization from the North Korean maritime authorities," a government official said, requesting anonymity.
Given the large number of North Koreans spotted aboard, suspicions had been raised that they were seeking asylum but forced to go back. The intelligence authorities, however, denied speculation that it was a defection attempt.
"We found they were swept by currents into South Korean waters as they were going to gather clams," an intelligence official said on Saturday requesting anonymity. "Since they wanted to return home, we sent them back using an overland route that evening." Officials cited South Korean policy to accept all North Korean defectors. Four found asylum after their wooden vessel drifted onto Yeonpyeong Island in May last year, following the defection of five North Koreans drifting on a small vessel in 2006.
Ping!
Really really bad if true........ hope it’s not.
TLR, are political people in the ROK somehow avoiding combat specialty services in compulsory training for the ROK Army? How is it that some leaders there could sometimes have such anti-defense attitudes?
They chose...poorly.
IMO, ROK Army training is some of the greatest. As brutal as some of the training appears to outsiders, the instructors are morally good, caring men. I also had one of them as a friend (after his ROK Army time) and instructor (non-military instruction) in the USA. ...very tough and sometimes rough, but honest, caring and wise.
or
(2) many of them, especially militant pro-North student activists in 80’s, deliberately chopped off their finger or took other measures to avoid a military service.
To them, N. Korea is a poor brother true to Korean soul, but maligned by relentless imperialist propaganda. They become the hardcore addict to such beliefs. They cannot get out if they want. Just like hardcore METH heads cannot get out of their habit. It may not be 100% impossible, but it is quite close.
Communism sucks
Thank you for the reply and information. And we Americans cannot be of good assistance due to our sliding away from older moral beliefs and practices. ...very sad.
Really? Everyone, including the South Koreans knew this would be the result. Why pretend there was even a chance for these people? Are we that blind?
You mean, the South Korean government?
What a strange time in which we live...
Well, there. That clears that up.
Whole thing is suspicious.
Who goes clamming so far out to sea that they get caught by the sea and drift so far off course>
Must be different kind of clams than we have in Maine where we wait for the tide to go out.
Also - when do 18 from one family all go out fishing at the same time?
And why were they sent back over land? North Koreans are poverty ridden - surely they would suffer greatly at the loss of their boat?
Whole story smells - sounds like South Korea send them back to certain death - but don't want to be blamed
BTTT
I'm sure over at DU they are breaking out the champagne. Celebrating a victory of the "Progressives", don't ya know.
I don't believe this.
Neither do the liberals. All one needs to do is put their fingers in their ears, close their eyes and say "La la la la la la la la la la" for a while and then it never happened. Sticking one's head in the sand also works.
FWIW, having lived in Korea for a time I would note the port of Inchon has a large tidal range - which amounts to over 10 meters in height. (30+ feet if you were educated in US public schools).
Being swept away by a rising tide is very believeable - the island mentioned is in the Inchon Bay maritime AO.
I do find it odd that an extended family would return to the hellhole that is North Korea, but, stranger things happen every day.....
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