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A special Asiana airlines flight carrying about 200 North Korean defectors arrived at Seoul Airport on 9:00 a.m. Tuesday from a Southeast Asian country. The arrival ended a journey to the South that for some had been as short as two to three months, and as long as two years for others.
¡ßDefectors Flee Between Late 2002 and 2004
It is known that the North Koreans who arrived Seoul this time or who will arrive in South Korea shortly will total about 450 people; 30~40 percent fled the North less than a year ago, while the rest fled more than one year ago.
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North Korean defectors look through the bus windows with curious faces, after arriving at a military airport in Seongnam on Tuesday morning./Yonhap
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Most of these defectors, who have fled since 2002, stayed in China immediately after leaving North Korea. Some of the women resided in China for a long time, and there are even cases in which some married other defectors and had children.
The defectors who stayed in China for a long time, hearing rumors that the South Korean government planned to take in all defectors and that one particular country in Southeast Asia was particular good for getting to South Korea, started to swarm down toward that country.
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Buses loaded with North Korean defectors leave a military airport tarmac in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, on Tuesday.
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According to a diplomatic source, at first, only few North Koreans came to the country using its poorly guarded borders but as many defectors joined the stream, it has become sort of a route to South Korea.
The South Korean government had brought North Korean refugees to the South through Southeast Asia and other third countries including from their country route, but the number of refugees fleeing to South Korea has skyrocketed. Starting with the 10 who entered in 2002, the number ballooned to 300 in 2003, and 400 had entered South Korea by April of this year alone.
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About 200 North Korean defectors arrived at a military airport in Seongnam, just south of Seoul, via a third Asian country on Tuesday morning. This marks the largest single defection ever by North Koreans to the South.
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The government began to negotiate with the government of the Southeast Asian country to directly bring the defectors to Korea in May, as it decided that if the government brought the defectors to Korea by the dozen through a third country, it might put the rest of the defectors waiting in danger and cause diplomatic problems with the Southeast Asian country.
As the negotiations got on track, the Southeast Asian country¡¯s government began to agonize over the fact that the country might become a route for North Korean defectors to South Korea and possibilities of aggravating diplomatic ties with North Korea if it permitted the large number of North Korean defectors to leave for South Korea. A negotiator of the Southeast Asian country told the South Korean negotiators several times that the country was worried that North Korean defectors might flock to the country in the future, if this route of this group of defectors were made public.
A diplomatic source said that the Southeast Asian country is very sensitive to the reports of the media. It had once promised full support to South Korea to bring back all of North Korean defectors to Seoul. Since the media reported on five North Korean being brought to the South through the country in the late 1990s, however, the country has refused to help the South Korean government bringing back North Korean defectors to South Korea. Therefore, the country¡¯s officials has constantly requested South Korean officials to keep its negotiations on North Korean defectors secret, whenever they visited Korea or they met with South Korean officials.
The two countries¡¯ negotiations in which even minister-level officials participated continued for two months till June. The two countries finally reached an agreement, as the South Korean government promised to the Southeast Asian country that it would not publicize the traveling route of the defectors. Civic groups helping North Korean defectors also actively cooperated with the government to keep the traveling route secret in order to ensure that the defectors arrived safely in South Korea.
During the negotiations, the government dispatched investigators to the Southeast Asian country to question the defectors to closely identify that they were real North Korean defectors. With the cooperation of the Southeast Asian country, the government has separately housed and protected the defectors in safe and isolated places starting late July. As soon as a special plane arrived in the country, the government finished the departure procedure of the defectors and made them board the plane.
(Kwon Kyung-bok, kkb@chosun.com )
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