“Under the Warm Care of a Relevant Organ?”

A South Korean man who worked at Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor unit and more recently at a pig farm has defected to the North by walking across the heavily mined border, the communist state’s media said on Tuesday. [Reuters]

Something tells me he’ll be dreaming of those little piggies soon enough.

“He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed,” the North’s KCNA news agency said. It identified the defector as Kang Dong-rim, 30.

“He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ,” KCNA said.

No inappropriate snickering, please. This is a family site.

Remarkably, Kang crossed the world’s most heavily mined and fortified border without exploding or getting himself shot by either side. So really, this is a case of natural selection on two separate, mutually contradictory levels. So what was Kang’s motive?

The South Korean military statement said Kang had formerly served in an army division near where the fence was found cut and he has been on a police wanted list following his alleged involvement in an assault case in September. [AP]

The AP notes that at least two other South Koreans have attempted to defect North in recent years, sadly, none of them members of Hanchongryon.

3 Responses

  1. This is (almost) pure comedy; I love your summation of this event too.
    Perhaps he will be charged for destruction of property as well since he put a hole in that fence.

  2. I wonder exactly what he felt during his first moments in North Korea. Once he saw the poverty, the ragtag clothes of the farmers and peasants, the decrepit infrastructure (if any), the emaciated, overly tanned, and wrinkled North Koreans; once he was taken into captivity, questioned, perhaps physically abused; after he had his first taste of North Korean cuisine, was stripped of any personal belongings (cell phone, iPod, watch, even clothes and shoes), and after he was shown where he’d live.

    After he’d been told he’d be forced to study Kim Il-Sung’s works for hours a day 7 days a week.

    After he realized he’ll never go online again, never see a pretty South Korean girl again, and never eat 갈비, 불고기, 돼지갈비, 삼겹살, 냉면, 비빔밥, 알탕, 매운탕, 설렁탕, 추어탕, 된장찌게…

    I wonder also how many tears he has shed.

    And I wonder what he will be told by any ROK or Japanese kidnap victims he may come across (unlikely, I think, though) who have dreamt of going home and who’ll be horrified to know he crossed over voluntarily.