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Twenty-two North Koreans who were turned back by South Korean authorities earlier this month after their fishing boats drifted into South Korean waters were executed last week and may have been seeking to defect to the South, sources said.
Authorities here triggered speculation when they made no formal confirmation of their repatriation. According to the Navy and the National Intelligence Service, the 22 were found drifting on Feb. 8 after catching crabs and oysters off Hwanghaedo Province, North Korea. They told investigators they wanted to return to the North and were sent back overland.
The group consisting mostly of workers from a fishery unit and cooperative farm in Dungam-ri, Gangryeong County, Hwanghae Province included three teenagers. According to the NIS, they set off aboard two rubber boats towed by a motor boat on Feb. 7, the Lunar Near Year, but were cast adrift on their way home while the motor boat went to rescue other boats the same afternoon, and were found by South Koreans in the early hours of Feb. 8. Thirteen of them were members of six families and nine others were their neighbors. "They were just in distress and wanted to be sent back to the North, where their families live," an NIS official said. The NIS sent the North Koreans back to the North through the Panmunjom truce village at 6:30 p.m. on the same day.
But Lee Gwang-il, a North Korean refugee who served as a maritime guard in the North, said no North Korean youngsters would be allowed to sail off in a boat even if they bribed officials. "Given that youngsters were involved, the chances are that they were attempting to defect to the South,Ħħ Lee said. He said controls are particularly tight in Hwanghae Province because it is near the South. He said rubber boats are not used by ordinary citizens and the group probably stole them from the military to defect. Kim Eun-chol, another North Korean refugee who lived near the coast in Sinuiju, on the border with China, agreed that a group including teenagers is unlikely to have been out fishing.
The Yonhap News Agency on Sunday quoted a government source as saying the 22 were executed early last week. "A rumor spread in South Hwanghae Province that the National Security Agency secretly executed the 22 people immediately after they were returned," the source was quoted saying. "People in the province are shocked by the fact that all of the 22 people were shot and killed without exception [like] being sent to a prison camp," the source said. The NIS said nothing has been confirmed.
Meanwhile, North Korea was in a festive mood, celebrating the 66th birthday of its leader Kim Jong-il on Saturday. In the North, the Lunar New Year is called a folk festival but Kim's birthday "the Greatest National Festival." According to the North Korean media, various commemorative events including athletic meetings are held in major cities including Pyongyang, which is decked out in colorful flowers, flags and neon decorations
Song Dae-sung, a senior researcher at the Sejong Institute, a private non-profit think-tank in South Korea, said "Had the North Korea purchased rice and grain with the money spent on celebrating Kim Jong-il birthday, a considerable portion of the food shortage of the residents would have been resolved.Ħħ
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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