defectors

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North Korean Crosses DMZ, Asks to Defect: Report

Man in plainclothes began crossing 2.5-mile-wide zone on Tuesday

(Newser) - South Korea has detained a North Korean man who showed up on its side of the heavily fortified border separating the Korean Peninsula on Wednesday. The suspected defector in plainclothes was first observed crossing barbed wire fences in the eastern section of the 2.5-mile-wide, 155-mile-long Demilitarized Zone around 7:...

Iranian Olympic Medalist Defects, Cites Oppression
Olympian Defects From Iran
Jan 12, 2020 10:50 AM CST

Olympian Defects From Iran

'Whatever they said, I wore,' says Kimia Alizadeh, the nation's only female medalist

(Newser) - Iran's only female Olympic medalist said she defected from the Islamic Republic in a blistering online letter in which she described herself as "one of the millions of oppressed women in Iran." Taekwondo athlete Kimia Alizadeh posted the letter on Instagram, the AP reports, as Iran's...

She Fled North Korea, but Her Death Has Rattled South Korea

Han Sung-ok and her son are believed to have starved to death in Seoul

(Newser) - The deaths of a North Korean defector and her young son in South Korea have delivered a jolt to residents of Seoul because of the bitter irony: Han Sung-ok fled famine in her own country and is believed to have starved to death in her adopted one, reports the New ...

It Was Close to Midnight Near the DMZ. Then, a Rare Sight

North Korean soldier picked up by South Korean troops after being spotted by thermal imaging

(Newser) - Although it's common for North Koreans to try to make a run for the South, what's not as common are defections across the Demilitarized Zone, which is littered with guards, landmines, barbed wire, and other barriers. But that's apparently what a North Korean soldier did this week,...

Soldiers Shot a Friend Running for the Border. But He Gets It

'I would have done the same thing,' says North Korean defector Oh Chong Song

(Newser) - A North Korean defector says he understands why his fellow soldiers shot him as he made a run for the border in 2017 after smashing his vehicle through a military checkpoint. Friendship isn't the issue, he said. It was their job. "If I were in their shoes, I...

North Korea's Ambassador to Italy May Have Defected

Jo Song Gil has applied for asylum in a Western country: reports

(Newser) - North Korea may have a high-profile defection on its hands. The country’s acting ambassador to Italy, Jo Song Gil, apparently fled the North Korean embassy in Rome with his wife weeks ago, before he was to leave his post at the end of November. That's according to South...

1K N. Korean Defectors Just Got Hacked

Names, addresses of people living in South were taken

(Newser) - South Korea says it is responding to a hacking attack that stole the names and addresses of nearly 1,000 North Korean defectors who resettled in the South. A regional office of the Hana resettlement center said Friday that it has been notifying affected defectors after discovering last week that...

Kim Executed Uncle Because of Grudge Over His Mom: Book

More family secrets in defector's memoir, including a Clapton concert attended by Kim's brother

(Newser) - Long-held grudges, executions, an Eric Clapton concert—it's all there in a new 542-page memoir by a man the Wall Street Journal calls "North Korea's most high-profile defector in two decades." The New York Times reports on Thae Yong Ho's Cryptography From the Third-Floor Secretariat,...

Expelled Russia Diplomats May Have Tracked Defectors

Including one given a new identity under a CIA program, CNN reports

(Newser) - Some of the 60 Russian diplomats recently expelled from the US were suspected of spying on Russian defectors, including at least one person who was given a new identity under a CIA program, CNN reports, citing officials briefed on the matter. The diplomats were expelled in response to the nerve...

The Defectors Made It Into China, Then They Were Gone

Ms. Choi wanted to get her sister out of North Korea

(Newser) - Some 30,000 North Korean defectors have made it all the way to South Korea, and their ranks are growing more slowly than they once did. In 2017, the South gained 1,127 defectors, a number that tended to be closer to 3,500 before Kim Jong Un took...

N. Korean Defector's Crutches a Reminder of Hellish Ordeal

Ji Seong Ho was a guest at Trump's SOTU address

(Newser) - During President Trump's State of the Union address, Ji Seong Ho waved his crutches. Those crutches have borne witness to an incredibly journey. The New York Times has Ji's story, which it dubs "remarkable even by the standards of North Korean defectors." It begins in 1996...

S. Korea Makes Sure North's Soldiers Hear About Defection

Military blasts the news over loudspeakers at the border

(Newser) - South Korea is making sure that North Korean soldiers at the border hear all about the defection of their fellow soldier. The South has been broadcasting news of the defection over loudspeakers installed near the DMZ, reports the Yonhap News Agency . On Sunday, for example, the loudspeakers spread the news...

Defector: N. Korean Army Life So Tough Our Periods Stopped
Female Defector Describes
Harsh Life in N. Korean Army
in case you missed it
Nov 25, 2017 10:20 AM CST

Female Defector Describes Harsh Life in N. Korean Army

Lee So Yeon says conditions were so tough women stopped having their periods

(Newser) - Lee So Yeon volunteered to join the North Korea army in 1992, lured in part, she says, by the promise of a daily meal. While cautioning that stories of defectors like Lee have to be taken with a grain of salt, the BBC presents an interview with the now 41-year-old...

North Korea Tightens Border in Low-Tech Fashion
North Korea Makes Changes
at Border After Defection
the rundown
Nov 24, 2017 10:34 AM CST

North Korea Makes Changes at Border After Defection

Soldiers dig a trench, plant trees

(Newser) - North Korea is trying to make sure that no others will be able to defect the way that a young soldier did last week . The fixes aren't exactly high-tech: North Korean soldiers were seen digging a big trench in the border area where the soldier first drove and then...

Dramatic Footage of Defector's Escape Released

North Korean soldier runs for his life as former comrades open fire

(Newser) - Dramatic video of a North Korean soldier defecting across the DMZ last week reveals just how narrow the man's escape was. The soldier can be seen fleeing in a military vehicle, which races toward the border down empty roads. The defector is seen abandoning the vehicle after it...

North Korean Defector Wakes, Asks to Watch TV

Wounded soldier regains consciousness, is expected to survive

(Newser) - The North Korean soldier who endured a volley of bullets from his former comrades as he crossed the border into South Korea has regained consciousness and is expected to survive, reports the BBC . In fact, the soldier asked to watch South Korean television upon waking and is now recuperating in...

North Korean Defector Is Ravaged by Parasites

Doctors say he's filled with them, hinting at poor diet and worse health

(Newser) - As if multiple bullet wounds weren't enough, the North Korean soldier who defected across the DMZ on Monday has "an enormous number" of parasites posing a risk to his recovery, according to South Korean doctors. "I've never seen anything like this," surgeon Lee Cook-jong says,...

North Korean Defector Had to Run After Issue With Jeep's Wheel

He was shot at least 5 times

(Newser) - A North Korean soldier fired on by his former comrades during a desperate attempt to defect across the DMZ on Monday was shot at least five times but is expected to survive, South Korean authorities say. Officials say the soldier drove a jeep toward the Joint Security Area—the only...

As He Ran Across the DMZ, His Fellow Soldiers Shot Him

Incident happened Monday in the Joint Security Area in the DMZ

(Newser) - If it sounds like an unusual event, that's because it is: A North Korea solider was shot and wounded in the demilitarized zone Monday afternoon while trying to defect to the South. The bullets came via "his former comrades," as CNN puts it, and struck him in...

Last Surviving US Defector to North Korea Is Dead

James Dresnok crossed border after fighting in Korean War

(Newser) - He might have been the most famous American in North Korea. But now James "Joe" Dresnok, a US soldier who defected after fighting in the Korean War, is dead, reports the Guardian . His two Korean-born sons made the news public in a government video, saying their father had suffered...

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