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It has emerged that South Korea¡¯s National Intelligence Service on Feb. 8 handed over to North Korean authorities 22 North Koreans who had been drifting near South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island aboard two small boats. Thirteen of the North Koreans were family members and relatives from the same coastal village in Kangnyeong County, South Hwanghae Province, and nine were neighbors, while the group also included three teenagers. The NIS did not report the incident until the Chosun Ilbo broke the story, and then only said the North Koreans had been drifting after their fishing boat ran into engine trouble while fishing for shellfish. The NIS said all of them were returned to the North via the truce village of Panmunjom, since they wanted to be sent back to the North and had not committed any crimes. But it remains a mystery why the family members and relatives boarded the boats, since North Korea, to prevent defections, prohibits whole families from boarding the same boat.
It is hard to imagine that the NIS would send back North Koreans who had sought to defect, but it remains unclear whether a proper investigation of their true intentions took place. Considering that it takes around two days to question a single defector, it is odd that it took just 14 hours from the time the 22 North Koreans were rescued in the morning to be sent back to the North through Panmunjom. It suggests there was no individual questioning of the 22.
North Korean refugees, with their experience of living under repression in the communist country, never say they are defecting unless they are questioned individually because there may be at least one person in their group who wishes to return to the North and may become an informer. The NIS said the North Koreans boarded the boats while monitoring was lax during the Lunar New Year holidays. But no matter how difficult the situation may be in North Korea, it is hard to believe that authorities would miss 22 people, including teenagers, boarding fishing boats on Lunar New Year¡¯s Day to go fishing for shellfish.
Rumors are spreading among North Korean defectors that the 22 have all been executed. The security agency in South Hwanghae Province reportedly put them in front of a firing squad. If this is true, our government has sent the 22 North Koreans to their death. Before these suspicions grow further, South Korean authorities must reveal what exactly the 22 North Koreans said during questioning and discover whether they are alive or dead.
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