For the first time in five years, a North Korean soldier defected to the South, crossing the heavily fortified border on foot early Tuesday, prompting some experts to speculate that the resumption in July of South Korean loudspeaker broadcasts along the border prompted his escape.
No details were available on how the soldier got across the border, only that the staff sergeant wearing a military uniform crossed in the far-eastern part of the 155-mile-long, 2.5-mile wide demilitarized zone, in Kosong, Kangwon province, and expressed a desire to defect, the South’s Yonhap News Agency reported.
The incident occurred nearly two weeks after a North Korean civilian escaped on the opposite side of the Korean Peninsula via the waters of the Han River estuary, landing on Gyodong Island in Incheon’s Ganghwa county.
Successful crossings of the heavily fortified military demarcation line that has divided the two Koreas since 1953 is rare. Generally, North Korean escapees try to flee north into China, though most eventually aim to get to South Korea.
The risks are high for those trying to escape from the poor, authoritarian country. If captured and sent back — as some are from China — they almost certainly face prison time.
Loudspeaker role?
On July 21, South Korea’s military fully resumed loudspeaker “Voice of Freedom” broadcasts to North Korea in border areas and forecast that the programs would psychologically agitate North Korean soldiers along the border. The programs focus on liberal democracy, the South's economic success, the rationale for reunification, and the truth about the North's repressive society.
“If defections occur frequently, this can be interpreted as an indirect measure of the situation of North Korean residents working in the border area,” said an official from South Korea’s Ministry of Unification during a meeting with reporters that day.
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Nam Sung-wook, a professor of North Korean Studies at Korea University and president of the school's Convergence Institute for National Unification, said he believed the programs contributed to the two escapes.
“North Korean residents and soldiers are directly receiving news from South Korea that contradicts North Korea’s version of reality through loudspeakers,” he told Radio Free Asia.
Nam also cited fatigue from U.N. sanctions against North Korea, flood damage due to recent heavy rain, the installation of barriers near the military demarcation line, and slack internal surveillance as other possible reasons.
“The situation does not appear to be improving in the short term,” he said.
Harsh life
Cho Han-bum, a senior research fellow at the state-run Korea InstituteforNational Unification, agreed that loudspeaker broadcasts in the area where the soldier fled may have shaken up North Korean troops.
But he also voiced concerns about the impact of harsh conditions that North Korean soldiers face.
“People’s soldiers on the front lines of North Korea are very dissatisfied because the food supply is so bad that about 30% of them suffer from malnutrition, and their service period is long with almost no vacation,” he told RFA.
“[Given] this situation, South Korea’s loudspeaker broadcasts against North Korea may have caused a stir in the North Korean military,” he said.
Cho went on to say that it was a “blow to North Korea’s pride” that the soldier’s defection took place as South Korea and its ally, the United States, conducted a large-scale annual military exercise to strengthen their combined defense capabilities against North Korea. Pyongyang accused them of practicing an invasion.
“It is difficult for the North Korean authorities to explicitly mention the defection of a North Korean resident because the more it becomes a public issue, the bigger the problem becomes,” he said.
North Korean authorities will likely respond to the incident by beefing up border surveillance and turning up their own loudspeakers against South Korea, said Doo Jinho, global strategy chief at the Korea Institute for Defense Analysis.
“The reign of terror will also be strengthened at the same time by further strengthening the punishment for those who have South Korea-related contents such as K-pop, K-dramas or books,” he said.
Translated by Claire S. Lee for RFA Korean. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcom Foster.