Why 4 N.Koreans Decided to Stay at the Last Minute

Why 4 N.Koreans Decided to Stay at the Last Minute

Four out of the 31 North Koreans whose fishing boat drifted across the maritime border in the West Sea on Feb. 5 want to defect to South Korea, the government said Thursday. Seoul is sending the remaining 27 along with their boat back home through the border truce village of Panmunjom on Friday.

According to a government official, the four who wish to defect are the 38-year-old male captain of the ship, another 44-year-old man and two women aged 21 and 22. They apparently did not decide to stay until Wednesday morning, which was the last day of their questioning by the South Korean military. "Four North Koreans stated their clear intention to defect on Wednesday afternoon during questioning," the official said. "It looks like they waited until the last moment to decide."


The captain is apparently afraid of punishment if he is sent back and made his decision when he saw how different life in the South is from the North during his 20 days here. The other man and the 22-year-old woman are said to be close. It is unclear why the 21-year-old woman decided to defect.

An intelligence official with experience in questioning North Korean defectors said, "In many cases, North Koreans who defect to South Korea after drifting across the maritime border either have few family members in the North or are afraid of being punished for going to the South if they're sent back."

Officials from the National Intelligence Service, Defense Security Command, military intelligence and police who questioned the North Koreans apparently showed them videos showing how South Korea has developed. There are even accounts saying they were taken on a tour of Seoul.

The Unification Ministry said they were free to make their own decision whether to defect or return to the North. "North Korea has recently been criticizing the joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, threatening to launch a nuclear attack, but the North as well as South Korea, the U.S. and China all seem to be looking for a chance to hold talks," an intelligence officer said. "In the circumstances we have no reason to make a great effort to persuade them to defect. As far as I know, all the defectors have their own reasons for choosing to stay in the South."

According to the Unification Ministry, North Koreans have drifted into South Korean waters on 30 occasions since 2004, and in only two cases did some of them choose to stay in the South. In February 2008, in the final years of the Roh Moo-hyun administration, 22 North Koreans drifted across the Northern Limit Line and all of them were sent back after just a day of questioning.

"The North Koreans who returned were initially used for ideological propaganda but were eventually sent to political prison camps for having experienced life in South Korea or ended up being placed under constant surveillance," A North Korean source said.

The 27 North Koreans who return home Friday are expected to be thoroughly interrogated about what they saw, heard and ate in South Korea and why four of their companions decided not to return.

North Korea's Red Cross in a statement Thursday demanded all of the 31 must be returned. "All of our people must be repatriated in accordance with human rights and humanitarian causes. This is crucial to inter-Korean relations," it said. "South Korea's handling of this matter will change our perception of it." It was apparently a roundabout threat to link the matter to inter-Korean political issues.

Judging by that statement alone, the defection of the four is likely to have a significant impact on cross-border relations. Pyongyang has vehemently protested and accused the South of coercion whenever some members of a group of North Korean drifters decided to stay in South Korea.

"Inter-Korean relations could become even more strained if the 27 North Koreans who return to the North appear on state television and accuse South Korean intelligence officers of persuading the four to stay," said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea expert at Dongguk University.
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