Free Republic

Joyful toasts and bitter memories: North Korean defectors grapple with death of Kim Jong Il By Associated Press, Published: December 25 SEOUL, South Korea — More than 21,000 North Koreans now live in South Korea. For many, the news of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il’s death stirred mixed emotions. Several interviewed in Seoul by The Associated Press described a burst of joy upon hearing that Kim had died, but also a surge of unease over the fate of relatives and friends and even a shadow of homesickness. There was celebration — one man had drinks with a friend— and...

22 N.Koreans Brave Perilous West Sea Escape Route A five-ton wooden boat carrying 22 North Korean defectors was spotted by a South Korean Navy ship around 3 a.m. on Oct. 30 some 38 km south of the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and 41 km west of Daecheong Island. The 12 male and 10 female defectors included eight children, including three under 10, according to a South Korean security official. A South Korean government official said all of them want to defect to the South. This was the fourth time North Koreans took the perilous route across...

North Korean artist in Egypt defects to S. Korea 2011-10-17 21:07 A North Korean artist formerly residing in Egypt has arrived in South Korea in a rare defection through the South Korean embassy in the Middle East country, a diplomatic source said Monday. The North Korean did not return to Pyongyang after his term in Egypt expired and sought refuge in the embassy about two months ago, the source said. The source did not give further details and asked not to be identified, citing the issue's sensitivity. The defection comes months after popular uprisings in Egypt and across the Arab...

Elite N. Korean defector joins S. Korea's spy agency SEOUL, Oct. 18 (Yonhap) -- A former regional head of a key North Korean youth organization was recently named a research fellow of an institute run by South Korea's spy agency, a source said Tuesday. Sol Jong-sik represented Ryanggang Province for the League of Kim Il-sung Socialist Working Youth before defecting to South Korea in 2009. The League, named after the late founder of the communist country, is a major social unit that mobilizes young North Koreans, including teenagers, and publishes a propaganda newspaper for them. The 41-year-old was named as...

N.Korean Defectors Strain Seoul-Beijing Relations Relations between South Korea and China are strained after Beijing on Tuesday said it is sending 20 North Korean defectors back to their country after arresting them late last month, despite urgent requests from South Korea not to send them to almost certain internment in a gulag, torture or death in the North. But the South Korean government is under internal pressure for failing to do its Constitutional duty to protect them. Under the Constitution, all North Koreans are automatically South Korean citizens. Chinese authorities recently cracked down on North Korean defectors in its three...

Sep 16, 2011 8:45am Poison-Needle Assassination Plot Busted in South Korea It could be a plot out of an action thriller. South Korean officials have arrested a North Korean defector in an alleged poison-needle plot targeting a high-profile anti-Pyongyang activist. The suspect, only identified by the police as Ahn, is said to be a former commando in his 40s who defected to South Korea in the late 1990s. The target was activist Park Sang-hak. A North Korean defector himself, Park leads a group called Fighters for Free North Korea that routinely flies balloons over the two countries’ border with leaflets...

Mosab, "son of Hamas," has been exposed as a fraud by counter jihad fighter Walid Shoebat. many of us, myself included, blogged about the phenom Mosab. Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of a jailed Hamas terrorist leader and MP, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the most popular figure in that extremist Islamic organization. Mosab, as a young man, assisted his father for years in his political activities. He converted to Christianity and operated undercover in the service of Israel's intelligence agency for a decade. Yousef reveals this information in an upcoming book, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal,...

A video from Syria shows the testimony of a soldier who said Assad’s forces shot at him when he defected after refusing to kill unarmed civilians in the Damascus area. Meanwhile, Syrian secret police and soldiers have arrested 1,000 people in the past two days and have surrounded the city of Banyas.

His name is Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Janabi but he was given the codename “Curveball� prior to the Iraq War. He played a significant role in convincing US authorities, including Colin Powell, that Saddam had biological weapons capabilities. Of course we’ve known since 2005 that claim wasn’t true, but now Curveball is admitting he made up claims of mobile weapons labs in order to get the US to topple Saddam. The Guardian has produced an exclusive video, here is a bit of the English transcript: I did that for a number of reasons. Firstly because of my people, the Iraq people…Saddam...

NK Defector to Head to S.Korea Write 2010-12-14 17:57:11 Update 2010-12-14 18:38:32 Japan’s Kyodo News says a North Korean defector will come to South Korea. Quoting a U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees official, Kyodo News said that an interpreter for the North Korean military secretly entered eastern Russia in September. It said the Russian government turned down his request for asylum and that South Korea will accept him. The North Korean defector testified that he was an interpreter for Russian relations for high-ranking North Korean military officials. He reportedly said he defected due to difficulties under the Kim Jong-il regime.

Top Russian spy defects after betraying U.S. ring By Thomas Grove Thomas Grove 21 mins ago MOSCOW (Reuters) – The head of Russia's deep cover U.S. spying operations has betrayed the network and defected, a Russian paper said on Thursday, potentially giving the West one of its biggest intelligence coups since the end of the Cold War. The newspaper, Kommersant, named the man as Colonel Shcherbakov, and said he was responsible for unmasking a Russian spy ring in the United States in June whose arrests humiliated Moscow and clouded a "reset" in ties with Washington. The betrayal would make Shcherbakov...

Former North Korean Soldiers Vow to Overthrow Kim Family Rule Steve Herman | Seoul 09 September 2010 A new organization in South Korea, claiming it includes more than 100 former North Korean military members, vows to end Pyongyang's government and unify the Korean peninsula. The North Korea Peoples Liberation Front also says it has support from current members of the communist state's military, but political analysts are skeptical. Exit 3 of Seoul's Singil subway station seems an unlikely place to begin a revolution. But 75 people who say they are former North Korean soldiers and other defectors gathered there to...

More Middle-Class N.Koreans Defect There appears to have been a shift in the profile of defectors fleeing North Korea since a botched currency reform late last year. Before the reform, most of the defectors were so poor that they did not care whether they would be killed if they were caught fleeing the North. But since the currency reform, more middle-class North Koreans have been fleeing the North, a South Korean security official speculated. A North Korean source on Tuesday said the currency reform alienated many people from the regime, and the spread of South Korean pop culture through videos...

WASHINGTON -An Iranian scientist sought refuge in the Pakistani Embassy compound and asked to go home, an apparent defection gone wrong that could embarrass the U.S. and its efforts to gather intelligence on Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran — and at one point, scientist Shahram Amiri — claimed the CIA had kidnapped him; the U.S. said Tuesday that nothing of the sort happened. Amiri disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia in June 2009, surfacing in videos but otherwise out of sight until the latest bizarre twist in the case. "Mr. Amiri has been in the United States...

Ted Kennedy's KGB Correspondence By Kevin Mooney on 6.22.10 @ 6:08AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip the Massachusetts Democrat took to Mexico and other parts of...

Defector Celebrates 6 Years of Free North Korea Radio Free North Korea Radio in Seoul on April 20 celebrated its sixth anniversary in an event that brought together the leaders of some of about 30 defector organizations in South Korea for the first time. Kim Sung-min (49), the president of Free North Korea Radio, said, "For the past six years, we've been working toward the day when we return to Pyongyang" after the nation is reunified. Kim Sung-min Kim Sung-min Kim majored in poetry at college. After graduation, he worked as a writer in the Army. He came to South...

Folks, several weeks to a couple of months ago, someone here on FR posted a link (within a thread) to a short video of North Korean defector Shin Dong-Hyuk. Mr. Shin grew up in a North Korean concentration camp - his parents were prisoners and he was born into the camp.I'm trying to locate that link to the video, but cannot seem to find the thread it was on. All of the other videos I can find of him on-line are too long to use for what I need (presentation). Any help on finding that thread and link is greatly...

In connection with the breaking news out of South Korea, here is a Korean language map from South Korean daily conservative newspaper Chosun Ilbo, showing the land and air routes the potential assassins (two males; highly trained) took from North Korea under orders from North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, until they were arrested in the South. Will post other breaking news as it comes in. No photographs have emerged yet of the two arrested and or whether weaponry was found on their persons.

North Korean who shopped for dictators goes public By VERONIKA OLEKSYN, Associated Press Writer 14 mins ago VIENNA – A North Korean colonel who spent two decades going on European shopping sprees for his country's rulers said Thursday the late dictator Kim Il Sung lived in luxury while many people struggled to survive in his impoverished communist nation. Kim Jong Ryul, who spent 16 years under cover in Austria, also described how the "great leader" and his son and successor Kim Jong Il spent millions pampering and protecting themselves with Western goods — everything from luxury cars, carpets and exotic...

N.Korean executed for calling S.Korea: report SEOUL (AFP) – A North Korean has been publicly executed for using a mobile phone to tell a defector friend in South Korea about living conditions in the communist state, a rights group said Thursday. The man identified only as Jung was executed in late January after security officials discovered a Chinese mobile phone in his home, said the Seoul-based Open Radio for North Korea. It said Jung, a munitions worker in the northeastern port of Hamhung, confessed under torture that he had mentioned rice prices and living conditions.

January 25, 2010 Nimble Agencies Sneak News Out of North Korea By CHOE SANG-HUN SEOUL — For a journalist who helped break one of the biggest stories out of North Korea in the past year, Mun Seong-hwi keeps an extremely low profile. The name he offers is an alias. He does not reveal what he did in North Korea before his defection in 2006, aside from mention of a “desk job,” in order to protect relatives left behind. He also maintains a wall of secrecy around his three “underground stringers” in North Korea, who he says do not know he...

2010/01/11 12:04 KST U.S. envoy calls N. Korean human rights conditions 'appalling' SEOUL, Jan. 11 (Yonhap) -- U.S. embassies abroad have been instructed to provide easy access to all North Korean defectors seeking asylum in the United States or elsewhere, the special U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights said Monday. Robert King, who succeeded the United States' first-ever representative on North Korean human rights six weeks ago, said the situation in North Korea was "appalling," calling the communist North one of the worst violators of human rights. "It is one of the worst places in terms of lack of...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — A U.S. House hopeful says a former top Romanian spy who defected to the United States in the1970s has endorsed him in a closely watched northeast Ohio race. The campaign of Paul Schiffer said Monday that Ion Pacepa (YON' puh-CHEP'-uh) is backing the Republican in this year's election because he believes Democrats are turning America into a socialist dictatorship like the one he escaped.

/begin my excerpts Picketing N. Korean Defector Bumping Face-to-Face into N. Korean Ambassador Ma Young-ae, N. Korean defector and artist, now residing in U.S. and heading (Christian) N. Korean Refugee Mission, was picketing with Choi Eun-chol, the (mission's) administrative manager, in front of N. Korea's Mission at U.N.. They were urging the International Criminal Court to indict Kim Jong-il, when they met face-to-face with (N. Korean) Ambassador (to U.N.) Shin Sun-ho. When she confronted him, he and his assistant gave her a brief look and headed for U.N. Headquarter. She followed them, with a new sign board saying, "Kim Jong-il,...

North Korean Defectors Puzzled, Moved by Roh Funeral By Kurt Achin Seoul 29 May 2009 South Korea's emotional farewell to former President Roh Moo-hyun brought much of the country together - including Koreans who were not born in the South. For North Koreans who have defected to South Korea, the outpouring of public emotion brought back memories of an earlier life - and reminders of how different their new life is. North Koreans who have begun a new life in the South were alongside their fellow Koreans in Friday's tearful mass gathering in Seoul. About 15,000 North Koreans now live...

N.Korea's Kim too selfish to start war -defectors Thu May 28, 2009 2:20am EDT (For full coverage of the North Korean crisis, click [nN25330519]) By Jack Kim ANSEONG, South Korea, May 28 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong-il is likely basking in the patriotic fervour whipped up by his nuclear test but is too worried about his own well-being to start a war, North Korean defectors said on Thursday. Poverty, famine and political oppression have driven tens of thousands of North Koreans over the border to seek a better life. "Why did they have to do it again? If...

North Korean Painter Brushes Away Taboos About Kim Jong Il By Kurt Achin Seoul 16 April 2009 North Korea's recent rocket launch and its reappointment of Kim Jong Il as military chief are reminders to the world of the North Korean leader's potential ability to threaten regional security. But one North Korean refugee is giving the world a look at Kim Jong Il in a much less austere light. The face of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il - not waving at the masses from a balcony, but lying on his back in a hospital bed. "Kim Jong Il is...

N. Korean Defectors Bewildered By the South By Blaine Harden Washington Post Foreign Service Sunday, April 12, 2009; A01 ANSEONG, South Korea -- To flee North Korea and arrive in the rich, wired, consuming culture of South Korea is to feel clueless, fearful and guilty. Teenagers are particularly bewildered. As part of the newest wave in a decade-old flow of defectors from the North, they arrive stunted from malnutrition and struggling to read. At the movies for the first time, they panic when the lights go down, afraid someone might kidnap them. They find it incredible that money is stored...

As a former Eastern European who spent 22 years of his life behind the Iron Curtain, my own perception of people's vigilance in the western countries for the security of their freedom, and most of all to safeguard their Catholic Apostolic Faith from the influence of, and possible destruction done by, the atheistic communism, is somewhat blinded by a clearly erroneous belief that people who lived in freedom all their lives want to continue living in it, and will not allow anything so criminal, hideous and ultimately satanic as communism is, to enter their society and take it over, and...

UPDATE: Father of man in Bonaire murder-suicide defected with MiG in Korean War By Gene Rector - grector@macon.com September 21 was already a monumental day in the life of Ken Rowe. The first one, in 1953, was a happy - even glorious - occasion. The second is devastating. Fifty-five years ago, Rowe - then known as North Korean Lt. No Kum-Sok - flew a Russian-made MIG 15 to Kimpo Air Base in South Korea, defecting from his Communist homeland and delivering a treasure trove of intelligence data to the U.S. and its allies. Just three days ago, also on Sept...

N.Korean Spy Who Posed as Defector Busted AUGUST 28, 2008 08:41 Authorities said yesterday that they apprehended a North Korean spy disguised as a defector. Won Jeong-hwa was caught while handing over military intelligence to the North. Her boyfriend, a South Korean Army captain, was also indicted for failing to report her despite knowing she was working for the North. A joint investigation team grilled Won’s stepfather “Kim,” who supervised and funded her espionage activities and delivered stolen information to North Korean agents in China. The North trained Won as a spy in December 1998 and she searched for and...

One of the things that both Dem campaigns are always nervous about is defectors. In particular, Clinton is more vulnerable to this problem since she's the candidate that is trailing. Well, NBC News has learned that a major fundraiser for Hillary Clinton, former Amb. to Chile Gabriel Guerra-Mondragon is leaving the campaign to join up Barack Obama's campaign. Officially dubbed a "Hillraiser," Guerra-Mondragon raised nearly $500,000 for Clinton's campaign, according to some estimates. He has been informing people inside Clintonworld this week in what's been described as some tough conversations. A formal announcement of a role for Guerra-Mondragon on Obama's...

N. Korean defectors testify before British opposition party leader By Sohn Suk-joo SEOUL, June 20 (Yonhap) -- Two North Korean defectors Tuesday testified before the British parliament about the life in North Korean gulags, Christian group officials said Wednesday. Having spoken at a meeting of the All-Party British-North Korea Parliamentary Group in the Moses Room of the Houses of Parliament in London, Ahn Myeong-Cheol and Shin Dong-Hyok, both now settled in South Korea, also met with David Cameron, leader of Britain's opposition Conservative Party, they said. The meeting came after Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), the organizer of the event, issued...

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HENDERSONVILLE, N.C. — China the cat got her name after being delivered in a crate holding motorcycle gear that a North Carolina man had ordered to be shipped from Shanghai. Eric Congdon opened the cargo freight that left port in China on April 3 and found the furry stowaway, which had chewed through one of the boxes. After at least 35 days on a ship, the cat was weak but still alive.

Mossad implicated in missing defector mystery By Tim Butcher in Jerusalem Last Updated: 1:43am GMT 09/03/2007 An Iranian former spy chief is being debriefed by Western intelligence officials after defecting, sources claimed yesterday. Speaking to The Washington Post, the sources said Ali Reza Azkari, 63, turned himself over to foreign spy agencies and was providing intelligence about Iran's close links with Hizbollah, the Shia militia from Lebanon. One of the sources said Mossad, the Israeli foreign intelligence agency which is known to have extensive contacts in Iran, coordinated his defection although there was no official confirmation from the Jewish State....

A former Iranian deputy defense minister who once commanded the Revolutionary Guard has left his country and is cooperating with Western intelligence agencies, providing information on Hezbollah and Iran's ties to the organization, according to a senior U.S. official. Ali Rez Asgari disappeared last month during a visit to Turkey. Iranian officials suggested yesterday that he may have been kidnapped by Israel or the United States. The U.S. official said Asgari is willingly cooperating. He did not divulge Asgari's whereabouts or specify who is questioning him, but made clear that the information Asgari is offering is fully available to U.S....

10,000th defector arrives on Kim Jong-il’s birthday February 17, 2007 A ceremony marking the 65th birthday of Kim Jong-il was held Thursday evening in Pyongyang in front of a flag of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party. [AP] The total number of North Koreans who defected to the South climbed above 10,000 yesterday with the arrival of the latest group of 10 defectors, the Ministry of Unification said. The defectors who arrived yesterday morning brought the figure to 10,006, the ministry said. Only 607 North Koreas had escaped their communist homeland and arrived in South between the Korean War and...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Army deserter who defected to North Korea in 1962 said a billion dollars could not entice him to leave the isolated communist country that is locked in a nuclear standoff with the United States. Joe Dresnok, the last American defector still living in North Korea, broke 44 years of silence since he slipped across South Korea's heavily mined border to begin a new life that included appearances in anti-American propaganda films. "I don't have intentions of leaving, could give a s*** if you put a billion damn dollars of gold on the table," Dresnok said...

Friend of poisoned Russian ex-spy accuses Kremlin 20 Nov 2006 13:03:52 GMT Source: Reuters By Kate Kelland LONDON, Nov 20 (Reuters) - A former Russian spy fighting for his life in a London hospital after being poisoned with a highly toxic chemical was the target of a Kremlin-backed plot, a close friend said on Monday, in a claim Moscow called "nonsense". A Kremlin spokesman dimissed allegations that exiled agent Alexander Litvinenko, an outspoken critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was the victim of an assassination attempt by Russian security services. British police are investigating after Litvinenko, a former colonel in...

PUSAN, South Korea -- Unrepentant and professing support for communism, the last living American defector in North Korea has spoken out publicly for the first time about his life in the nation and his motivations for defecting -- on celluloid. "I'm telling you a story I never told anyone," James "Comrade Joe" Dresnok says in the film "Crossing the Line," which had its world premiere Monday at South Korea's Pusan International Film Festival. "I have never regretted coming to [North Korea]. I feel at home."

UNREPENTANT in his support for communism, the last American defector living in North Korea spoke for the first time yesterday of his life and motivations for defecting.“I’m telling you a story I never told anyone,” says James “Comrade Joe” Dresnok in Crossing the Line, the story of a rare convert to the ways of the world’s most isolated nation. “I have never regretted coming to the DPRK. I feel at home,” he says in the film which had its premiere at the South Korean Pusan International Festival. Made by British film-makers in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the documentary...

Kim Duk-Hong: Interview with a North Korean Defector Kim Duk Hong is one of the highest ranking officials to defect from North Korea. He escaped from North Korea in 1997, first to Beijing and then to Seoul, along with Hwang Jang Yop, the architect of the North Korea regime's ideology known as "Juche," meaning "self reliance." Kim was Hwang's assistant for many years. He is officially barred from talking to the press by the South Korean government, however, FRONTLINE obtained this exclusive interview at an undisclosed location in South Korea. The interview was conducted in Korean and has been translated....

China, U.S. in talks on 4 defectors from North May 22, 2006 ¤Ñ WASHINGTON ¡ª The United States has begun negotiations with China over four North Korean defectors, three men and a woman, who broke into the U.S. consulate in Shenyang, China. It was confirmed on Friday that the four North Koreans who had been sheltering in the South Korean consulate recently entered the neighboring U.S. consulate by climbing the wall between the two embassy buildings. A South Korean diplomatic source said yesterday, "The ball is now in the U.S. court," and, "We know that negotiations between the United States...

...I was formerly known as Iraqi Fedayeen Major General, Ali Ibrahim Al-Tikriti. I was one of Saddam's chief Generals dealing with his secret nuclear, chemical, and biological programs... After the Gulf War our weapons programs were driven deep underground to avoid international inspections. We composed an idea of using salvaged parts from Tamuz in the early 90's as well as research we still had filed to begin construction of a simulation reactor. One of the most critical components was the gas centrifuges. After numerous attempts to acquire specially designed high strength aluminum tubes for these centrifuges we were finally successfully...

Many N.Koreans Would Choose U.S. Over South: Poll Signs that the U.S. is opening its doors to refugees from North Korea, starting with a group of six who found asylum there Saturday, suggest defectors may soon be able to choose whether to go to America or South Korea, with many expected to pick the former option. A survey conducted by the Chosun Ilbo on Monday among 100 North Korean refugees who settled in South Korea found that 50 would go to the U.S. given a choice and 46 South Korea. The others were not sure. Of those who chose the...

First Group of N.Korean Refugees ‘Headed for U.S.’ Some five or six North Korean defectors are reportedly preparing to enter the U.S. under the protection of its embassy in a Southeast Asian country as Washington prepares to make good on a pledge to grant asylum to more refugees from the Stalinist country. Sources in the U.S. government and Congress said Thursday as soon as procedural matters with the Asian country are resolved, the North Koreans will make their way to the U.S. Another official said the defectors are staying at a safe house in the U.S. legation in a Southeast...

US President George W. Bush (R) pats Han-Mi Kim of North Korea on the knee at the White House in Washington. Bush called North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's regime "heartless," after an emotional meeting with families of Japanese nationals kidnapped by North Korean agents(AFP/Mandel Ngan)

Bush Meets N.Korean Defectors, Activists Sakie Yokota, mother of Japanese kidnap victim Megumi Yokota, testifies on Capitol Hill on Thursday before a House committee as Koh Myung Sup, a South Korean abductee listens at right. Holding up photos of her daughter is her son Takuya Yokota. /AP-Yonhap U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday morning met with North Korean refugees including seven-year-old Kim Han-mi and his family, who defected from North Korea in 2002, and Chung Seong-san, the artistic director of the hit musical “Yoduk Story” about a North Korean concentration camp. The hour-long meeting at the Oval Office...

White House Puts Face on North Korean Human Rights By Peter Baker Wednesday, April 19, 2006; A01 She showed up at a school in a coastal city in China nearly five months ago and begged for help. Instead, she was deported to her native North Korea and never seen again. Now the case of Kim Chun Hee has made its way to the desk of President Bush, threatening to complicate the first White House visit of China's leader tomorrow and further irritate an irritable relationship. Urged on by evangelical supporters from his home town and other activists elsewhere, Bush has...