A North Korean Defector Was Caught on Surveillance Cameras 10 Times, But the Military Missed Him 8 Times

[경향신문]

Bak Jeong-hwan, chief of the strategy headquarters at the Joint Chiefs of Staff describes the route of a North Korean defector at a plenary session of the parliamentary National Defense Committee on February 17. National Assembly press photographers

A North Korean man who came South along the coast near the Unification Observatory in Goseong, Gangwon-do was caught on surveillance cameras ten times, but the military failed to detect him on eight occasions. The military was not aware of the man for three hours after he came up on land until he was identified at the Civilian Control Line guard post, and the report to the superior office was only made thirty minutes later. This was a total failure in border watch and surveillance.

According to the results of a field investigation released by the Joint Chiefs of Staff on February 23, the North Korean man came up on land near the Unification Observatory wearing a wetsuit at around 1:05 a.m. February 16. He threw away his wetsuit and diving fins at a rocky area when traveling south along the coast lined with iron fences and approached the Civilian Control Line guard post after passing through the drain under the iron fence. The Joint Chiefs of Staff explained how this man was able to make it to South Korea by swimming nearly six hours in winter water temperatures saying that the current flowed from north to south at the time; the man was a fisherman; and the thick clothes he had on along with the wetsuit could have provided him with more buoyancy. A representative of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “A joint intelligence investigation is underway on the background and exact details of how he came to the South.”

The investigation by the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed that there were serious holes throughout the military’s vigilance, surveillance network, and initial response when the North Korean man defected to the South. The military’s coastal monitoring device detected the North Korean man on five occasions from 1:05-1:38 a.m. before he passed the drain underneath the iron fence. Surveillance cameras along the fence of a military unit then captured him three times from 4:12-4:14 a.m.

The monitor in the military situation room raised an alarm twice, but due to the negligence of the soldier on guard, the military missed the alarm. The drain underneath the iron fence running along the coast was damaged, and what’s more, it was not even on the list of items that the unit was to manage. The official from the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “During a field investigation, we confirmed three drains that were not on the list of items that the unit oversaw.” He further explained, “The booms on two of them were intact, but the steel boom on one was seriously deteriorated.”

A soldier on guard finally identified the North Korean man in a footage from a surveillance camera at a post on the Civilian Control Line three hours after he had arrived in South Korea. Yet the report to the superior office was not made until thirty minutes later. From negligence in border watch to a tardy report, the military completely failed in its initial response.

The military has repeatedly failed in its border watch, as when a North Korean man crossed over the iron fence to the South, and it has come under fire for failing to present any effective follow-up measures. This day, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, “The defense ministry, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Army Headquarters will together inspect the mission execution status of the unit in question,” and added, “We will seek measures to guarantee conditions for the execution of missions, such as formation, facility, and equipment requirements and reinforcements.” The unit in question is responsible for guarding an area that is twice as large as areas covered by other general outpost (GOP) divisions, and is currently watching the border areas on land and along the coast with only three brigades with no reserve brigade. The latest decision seems to have taken this fact into account. However, the military authorities were also criticized for some of the measures they pledged, such as the establishment of discipline among agents conducting border operations, improvements to the usage of the scientific surveillance system, and inspections of all drains and sluices under the iron fences, for they were merely a repeat of the measures they announced when a North Korean man came South last July and when a North Korean crossed the iron fence to the South in the operating area of the 22nd Division last November.