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Border envy: North Koreans long for freedom as two defectors reach South

Some residents of Hyesan on the China-North Korea border are envious of two recent defectors who reached South Korea, a source in Ryanggang province told The Daily NK on Wednesday.

According to the source, border residents were excited by the news of the successful defections, as the authorities completely closed the border after COVID-19 and have been intensively cracking down on illegal activities in the border areas since then.

They envy the defectors to South Korea and compare their situation to their own, where they cannot even dream of defecting amid intense restrictions and surveillance.

In the past, smuggling was so prevalent in the border areas that it was common for people to buy cakes or fruit boxes from China on national holidays or family birthdays, and smugglers would cross into China every day or two.

However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the authorities closed the border completely, and even after the pandemic ended, the government allowed only official trade through customs or state-run smuggling. Private smuggling remains strictly forbidden, and the practices of the past are gradually disappearing.

As a result, attempting to defect across the border is considered an extremely dangerous undertaking.

The defections of North Koreans to South Korea’s Gyodong Island near Incheon on Aug. 8, and to Gosong county, Gangwon province, on Aug. 20 have aroused feelings of envy among the border residents.

Some Hyesan residents who heard the news of the defectors said that they have “no chance of leaving no matter how much they want to, but the sea seems to be an exit” and that they hope “the day will come when they too can leave like the defectors,” the source said.

“With the ban on smuggling, border residents are suffering serious hardships, and indeed, the lives they lived before COVID-19 and those they live now are incomparably different,” he said. “People want to defect more and more, as life becomes harder by the day, while the crackdown and restrictions intensify.

“People who have heard about the successful defections by sea and through the front line are even saying that they should move to Kangwon province or South Hwanghae province. The reality is that people believe the only hope for the future is to leave this place (North Korea).” 

On Aug. 20, a uniformed North Korean soldier walked along the East Sea coast in Kosong, Gangwon province, and crossed the Military Demarcation Line into South Korea. The defection was considered unusual, coming just 12 days after another North Korean took advantage of low tide to walk across neutral waters at the mouth of the Han River into South Korea.

The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.

Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.

Read in Korean

September 12, 2024 at 12:45PM

by DailyNK(North Korean Media)

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