Why Is N.Korea So Furious About 4 Defectors?

North Korea reacted with unprecedented fury when four of 31 North Koreans whose fishing boat drifted into South Korean waters on Feb. 5 decided to stay in the South. The North took the unusual step of demanding that the four are brought face to face at the border truce village of Panmunjom, in what was seen as a naked threat that the families would suffer reprisals if the defectors do not return.

One reason may be that the defection will make it clear to North Koreans that the regime is lying about South Korea's attitude to defectors and encourage others. Rumors about the incident are circulating widely in the North.

Park Myung-ho, a former captain in the People's Army who fled to the South from Hwanghae Province by sea in May 2006, said he and his family avoided the South Korean Navy and waited to announce they were defecting until they arrived on land. The reason was that North Korean propaganda discourages defections by claiming that the South Korean Navy sends all defectors back except some high-ranking officials.

Under the Roh Moo-hyun administration, all North Korean fishing boats that drifted into South Korean waters were sent back to the North almost by force and some were even given free fuel so they would leave quickly. This made it impossible for people aboard to defect even if they wanted to. Most people in Hwanghae Province are still afraid to try and escape to the South for fear that they might be sent back.

In February 2008, 22 North Koreans sailed across the Northern Limit Line, the de facto maritime border, and all were sent back the next day because the government was keen to appease the North. Some of them were near death from cold, but they were all rushed back without even a proper meal or medical treatment. Rumor has it that the North executed some of them.

The North played up the repatriation of the 22, to give the impression that however hard people tried to escape to the South, Seoul would always give in to pressure from the mighty regime in Pyongyang.

But food shortages in Hwanghae Province are among the most severe in the North, according to defectors who arrived in the South recently. The powerful National Defense Commission is said to be so desperate to secure military rice stocks that it charged the province with the production of rice for the military and then promoted some officers there. With rice crops confiscated for the military in the province, which sustained serious typhoon damage last summer, word is that farmers either starve to death or escape to the South.

Some North Koreans in the border area with China can cross the border by bribing officials, but it is much harder for people in Hwanghae Province to get across the heavily fortified border with South Korea.

That is why people in the province started fleeing in boats after the regime promoted the building of small fishing boats to earn hard currency from seafood. But when escapes by sea increased, the North confiscated all privately owned fishing boats and banned families from going to sea together.

But if people try to escape by sea in large numbers, the North will find it virtually impossible to stop them, and once they realize that the South will not send them back their numbers are likely to increase.