A swim and a walk brings new defector

A North Korean male civilian defected to the South early morning yesterday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.
The 37-year-old North Korean laborer from Wonsan, Gangwon province, both walked and swam southward to reach the South Korean guard post near the Goseong Unification Observatory, located at the northern tip of the South’s east coast, a spokesman at the military command said.
South Korean guards detected the defector swimming across the maritime border between the two Koreas early yesterday.
Once the man crossed over to the South, he went ashore and dashed southward, and the South Korean military reacted by assuming that he was a North Korean spy or infiltrator.
A border guard fired a shot, but withheld further fire after the man signaled that he wanted to defect. He was taken to the guard post, the military command said.
He reportedly told officials at the guard post that he defected to the South because of severe economic hardships and political discrimination in the North.
Growing numbers of North Koreans have defected to the South through a third country, but cross-border defection via sea or land is rare.
This man’s defection is only the fourth successful one of its kind since 1998.

by Lee Chul-hee