From Yonhap:
Thai police raided a church home and rounded up 175 North Korean defectors being sheltered there while seeking asylum in another country, sources here said Wednesday.
Officials indicated that they would charged but allowed to leave Thailand.
The defectors, mostly women, have been turned over to immigration authorities. They also include pregnant women, handicapped persons and those suffering heart ailments needing urgent medical care, according to the sources.
They will most likely be allowed to travel to South Korea upon release. They are legally ROK citizens under Article 3 of the Korean constitution and I expect that Thailand would rather send them to Seoul than Pyongyang.
175 North Koreans defectors coming on a plane to Korea? Anti-Unification minister Lee Jong-seok is going to choke on that one.
10 Comments
It sounds like the North Korean version of “Snakes on A Plane”. I’m sure Lee Jong-seok will be yelling “175 m*f* North Korean defectors on a m*f* plane!!?”
Is there going to be a sequel I wonder . . .
Let him choke…
Why are pregnant women and folks with mental handicaps travelling abroad to Thailand? *BOGGLE*
I remember during the Carter administration when the U.S. took all the Cuban inmates and peppered them across America. At least we got a cool movie out of the deal…
–Remort
Well, with 175 North Koreans coming to South Korea, at least some of the money South Korea has earmarked for ‘humanitarian aid’ will reach its intended targets.
The fact is, most defectors from the North are not satisfied with their life in the South. I saw this in a research poll a few months ago. There are so many spies in Korea that a false move or statement by a defector can cause them their life. Also, some defectors tried to send their message on North Korea’s abuse of basic human rights on a radio and they got shut down. In addition, a bunch of left-wing groups were trying to hunt these poor guys down to shut them up. It is no wonder that most defectors prefer to defect to the United States.
“The fact is, most defectors from the North are not satisfied with their life in the South.”
The word ‘ostracize’ is not uncommon in these parts, whether it be their own brethren from the North or their visitors from elsewhere.
Brethren. I wonder if they really take that into heart, that word….
R. Elgin,
I am going to use that line if the opportunity comes up.
once they get to south korea they can head over to the american embassy and start the application process for emmigration. i wish them luck.
instead of having all the university students in south korea forced into english classes, the powers-that-be should bring some north koreans onto campus and have them give classes on life in the north. that would help the average korean university student a lot more than having to suffer through yet another cycle of endless “ice breaker” activities and hello-how-are-you? silliness.
JD, the left-wing groups out to get these defectors are in the Korean Universities. They would probably stage a protest to NOT invite the North Korean defectors to speak. If they don’t get their way doing this, they will start handing out leaflets to boycott speeches by North Korean defectos that criticize the regime up there. Either way, it’s probably a lose lose situation for the defectors.
Not only students, but…about a year ago, someone who’s probably in the know commented on the Marmot’s Hole that residents in some neighbourhoods don’t want defectors moving in, or agencies for defectors set up in their neighbourhoods (can’t remember which…maybe both)…the idea seems to be greeted in some quarters as something tantamount to opening a halfway house in a North American neighbourhood (to which there is often also a reaction or overreaction…don’t want to editorialize here, as I’m not an expert in this area at all).
On top of which, there are probably enough linguistic (dialectal) and cultural differences between North and South Koreans to just compound defectors’ difficulties in integrating into SK society. It seems to be a tough break for them all round.