Posted on 03/19/2009 5:59:55 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Japanese Held After Bid To Cross Border To North Korea
SEOUL (AFP)--South Korean soldiers have detained a Japanese man who attempted to cross the heavily guarded border into North Korea, in what local media described as a one-man peace protest.
The Japanese embassy in Seoul confirmed that a Japanese had tried to cross the frontier at the Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which divides the peninsula.
Information official Satoshi Nishijima said he had no details and didn't know the man's motive.
Yonhap news agency said the 40-year-old approached a barbed-wire fence in the Cheorwon area on Wednesday night but was detained after being spotted by South Korean soldiers.
The man initially said he was trying to cross into North Korea to protest tensions on the peninsula and promote peace, it quoted an unidentified defense official as saying.
The man was handed over to his embassy in Seoul and recanted his earlier statements about his motive, the official added.
(Excerpt) Read more at nasdaq.com ...
Chia Head must have been delighted.:-)
Ping!
Ping!
He heard NK had political asylum. He just wanted to check the facilities.
Perhaps a distant relative of General Hideki Tojo with similar delusions of grandeur? ;)
If he were one of them, all they have to do is to go to N. Korea via China legally. This man does appear to have a problem.
I met this man while staying at the same hostel in Seoul last week. He and some other Japanese people I randomly met there were very friendly, and one afternoon me, him, and another Japanese guy who was staying in my room all went for lunch together.
At first when the man said he was travelling to North Korea I thought he must work for the Japanese government. When I asked why he was heading there he said ‘to say we’re sorry’. Later, after more interrogation care of myself, he explained that actually he was planning to run across the border at night. He said he was going to buy some clippers for the barbed wire, and run taking great bounds to avoid landmines. When I asked him what he did in Japan, he said he ‘used to be’ an architectural draftsman of some sort, and left it at that.
He appeared perfectly normal, and joked saying ‘I know I’m crazy’ while we ate. He indeed said that his goal was to encourage peace. I believe that his personal life is empty, and so taking an extreme action as this, to promote a positive ideal, was his way of making his life meaningful. I’m no expert, but he was definitely not a run of the mill raving lunatic as one might infer from the media quote.
I would agree with you that he doesn't sound like a run of the mill raving lunatic. It takes a special kind of raving lunatic to break into the People's Paradise of North Korea "to say we’re sorry". Your everyday run of the mill raving lunatic would probably pass on that one.
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