Page 16 - IAV Digital Magazine #624

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North Korean, Wrapped in Plastic Foam, Floats To Freedom In The South
By Dasl Yoon and
Timothy W. Martin, Wall St. Journal
SEOUL—A North Korean man defected to South Korea after he swam down the coast and evaded armed border guards with orders to shoot anyone fleeing Kim Jong
Un’s regime.
The unidentified man was detected late on the evening of July 30, accord- ing to South Korean offi- cials, who made the defec- tion public on Thursday. He used tied-on plastic foam
for buoyancy and swam down the Korean Peninsula’s west coast.
After a journey of around 10 hours, the man, who reportedly waved his hands and declared his intention to defect, was retrieved by South Korea’s military about 1.6 miles south of North Korean soil.
Defections to the South have become extremely rare in recent years after Kim ordered extra fortifica- tions and boosted security along the border. That has left only dangerous routes
and the risk of a death sen- tence if caught.
Many North Koreans used to flee through China, crossing the border with help from brokers. But recent escapes have involved riskier routes, including traversing the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, taking small fishing boats or swimming alone.
The North Korean man crossed into the South at an estuary where the two Koreas sit just miles apart. Another individual man- aged to escape North Korea a year ago in the same waterways. Earlier this week,
Pyongyang refused to claim the body of a 36- year-old North Korean farmer who had washed ashore in the area.
In recent decades, it was typical for more than 1,000 North Koreans to relocate to South Korea annually. But the totals plunged dur- ing the pandemic as the Kim regime slammed its borders shut. Just 236 North Koreans arrived in
the South last year.
North Korea suffers
from widespread human- rights abuses, with alleged public executions, torture and forced labor. Citizens can’t leave their province without government per- mission. Nearly half of the cash-strapped country’s 26 million people are malnour- ished, according to United Nations estimates.
Kim has stiffened penalties for watching foreign media content—which he
calls “dangerous poi- sons”—fearing how expo- sure to the outside world could puncture his informa- tion-repressed society. Watching a South Korean drama is a jailable offense; distributing such content is even punishable by death.
In recognition of the strug- gles inside North Korea, the country recently aired a new drama on state televi- sion that depicted everyday corruption, missed quotas and family conflict. That represented a break from decades of utopian imagery and leadership fealty.
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