SEOUL: A person who crossed the border into North Korea on New Year’s Day was likely a defector who had slipped through the same heavily fortified frontier in the other direction to settle in South Korea in late 2020, South Korea’s military said Monday.
South Korean surveillance equipment earlier detected an unidentified person entering North Korean territory across the eastern portion of the border on Saturday. The military said its security camera showed the person crawling over a barbed-wire fence established along the southern edge of the border.
On Monday, the Defense Ministry said in a statement it suspects a North Korean defector was the latest border-crosser and that it is trying to confirm related information.
A ministry official said the statement refers to a former North Korean citizen who was captured at the southern part of the border, also on the eastern section, in November 2020. The man identified himself as a former gymnast and told investigators that he had crawled over barbed wire fences to defect before being found by South Korean troops, the official said requesting anonymity citing department rules.
Ministry spokesman Boo Seung-Chan said earlier Monday that North Korea has not responded to a South Korean message sent the previous day to ensure the person’s safety.
In September 2020, North Korea killed a South Korean fisheries official found floating in its waters along a sea boundary. South Korea said that North Korea troops were under orders to shoot anyone illegally crossing the border to protect against the coronavirus pandemic.
The South Korean ministry didn’t provide further details such as why it believes the defector went back to the North.
About 34,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea for economic and political reasons since the late 1990s, and only about 30 of them have returned home in the past 10 years, according to South Korean government records.
Observers say those returnees likely failed to adjust to new highly competitive, capitalistic lives in South Korea, had big debts or were blackmailed by North Korean agents who threatened to do harm to their loved ones if they didn’t return.
Defecting via the border is rare. Unlike its official name, the Demilitarized Zone, the 248-kilometer-long, 4-kilometer-wide border is guarded by land mines, tank traps and combat troops on both sides as well as barbed wire fences. A vast majority of the North Korean defectors in South Korea have come here via China and Southeast Asian countries.
Saturday’s border crossing has raised questions about South Korea’s security posture as the border crosser’s entry into the DMZ was not immediately notice by South Korean troops though their surveillance equipment was later found to have detected the person. The military acknowledged it had sent soldiers but failed to locate the person before he or she crossed the border.
In recent years, the South Korean military faced similar criticism when North Koreans snaked through DMZ areas unnoticed to defect, including one who knocked on the door of a South Korean army barrack.
Seoul: North Korea defector likely made rare border crossing
https://arab.news/w2s8p
Seoul: North Korea defector likely made rare border crossing
- Security camera showed the person crawling over a barbed-wire fence established along the southern edge of the border
Trump says Australia will grant asylum to Iran women footballers
MIAMI: US President Donald Trump said Monday that Australia had agreed to grant asylum to some of Iran’s visiting women’s football team, amid fears they could face retaliation back home for not singing the national anthem before a match.
The gesture ahead of the team’s Asian Cup match against South Korea last week was seen by many as an act of defiance against the Islamic republic just two days after the United States and Israel attacked it.
“I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team. He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of,” Trump said Monday on his Truth Social network, less than two hours after an initial post urging Australia to take them in.
Trump added that “some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return.”
There was no immediate comment from the Australian government, which has so far declined to say whether it could offer the players asylum.
Asked about their case on Sunday, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said Australia “stands in solidarity” with the people of Iran.
The son of Iran’s late shah, US-based Reza Pahlavi, warned on Monday that the refusal to sing the anthem could have “dire consequences,” and urged Australia to offer the team protection.
Trump then weighed in, pressing Albanese to “give ASYLUM” to the team and adding: “The US will take them if you won’t.”
“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed,” the US leader said on Truth Social.
Pahlavi, who has not returned to Iran since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the monarchy, has billed himself as the man to lead a democratic transition to a secular Iran as the theocratic regime fights to survive.
Politicians, human rights activists and even “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling have also called for the team to be offered official protection.
“Please, protect these young women,” Rowling said in a post on social media.
‘Save our girls’
A presenter on Iranian state TV had branded the players “wartime traitors” after they stood motionless during the anthem before their match against South Korea.
In subsequent games, the players saluted and sang.
Crowds gathered outside the Gold Coast stadium where the side played their last match over the weekend, banging drums and shouting “regime change for Iran.”
They then surrounded the Iranian team bus, chanting “let them go” and “save our girls.”
On Monday, an AFP journalist saw members of the team speaking on phones from their balcony of their hotel.
Asked about the possibility of granted asylum, a spokesperson for Australia’s Home Affairs department told AFP earlier it “cannot comment on the circumstances of individuals.”
Amnesty International campaigner Zaki Haidari said they faced persecution, or worse, if they were sent home.
“Some of these team members probably have had their families already threatened,” Haidari told AFP.
“Them going back... who knows what sort of punishment they will receive?“
Despite being heavily monitored, the side would have a “small window of opportunity” to seek asylum at the airport, he said.
Iran’s embassy in Australia did not respond to a request for comment.
