A lot of North Korean defectors living in South Korea are giving up their plans
to extricate their family members from North Korea.
Mr. Lee, an individual who has been involved in rescuing North Koreans for 20
years, informed Freedom Chosun that many defectors now living in South Korea
have held up their plans to extricate their family members.
The North Korean government has reopened the Chinese border following the
end of the pandemic, and the smuggling routes are available now for extrication
operations. However, there are hardly any new requests for smuggling their
relatives out of North Korea. Even the old requests he had received prior to the
pandemic are being canceled now.
The main reason for giving up the rescue plans is because of the fear of getting
caught on the part of the North Korean relatives, according to Mr. Lee.
The North Korean authorities have been employing extreme measures to stop
defection, and the would-be defectors are afraid. The government created and
installed an institute called the “Family Control Department” under the Party’s
Security Agency in the border region since 2010. The department’s specialty is
political ideology education, and it conducts classes for the relatives of defectors
living in South Korea. The department also keeps the relatives under surveillance.
The relatives remaining in North Korea are inundated with the following message:
“If you forget about your relatives who betrayed the fatherland and escaped to
South Korea, you could live a normal life without punishment or disciplinary action.
But if you communicate with your relatives in the South and commit treason, you
will be punished severely.”
The Security Agency reinforces its fear tactic by notifying them of the punishments
handed down to the “criminals” who were caught while escaping. The Security
Agency informs them of the details of the crimes and the punishments they receive,
such as execution, imprisonment in gulags, and life sentence. As a result, the
relatives are mired in extreme anxiety and fear, leading them to give up their plan
to defect.
Another reason why the defectors (South Korean residents) give up their plan
to rescue their relatives from the North is the cost. Four or five years ago, before
the pandemic, the average cost of bringing out one person from North Korea to
China ranged from $14,778 to $18,473. The cost jumped up to $36,946 and more.
And the cost to bring one person from China to South Korea rose from $2,955 to
$14,778.
So, the total cost to bring out a relative from the North to the South is more
than $51,724. The great majority of the defectors in the South cannot manage
such a large sum of money. They are hard-pressed to manage their own living
expenses in the South as it is.
Thus, the defector community in the South and their rescue plans for their kinfolks
from the North are in danger of becoming mere wishful thinking rather than reality.
Jang Se-yul
저작권자 ⓒ 프리덤조선 무단 전재 및 재배포 금지