{"id":2279,"date":"2016-04-27T10:42:17","date_gmt":"2016-04-27T01:42:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.01.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang-2\/2016\/04\/report\/20160427-group-escape\/"},"modified":"2018-08-24T18:21:32","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T09:21:32","slug":"20160427-group-escape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/2016\/04\/news\/20160427-group-escape\/","title":{"rendered":"Kim Jong-un\u2019s Furious Response to the Defection of 13 Restaurant staff"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"North<\/a>

North Korean staff singing during a show. They live together in a nearby apartment. Taken by ASIA PRESS in Yanji City, Jilin Province, China on July 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

On April 8, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced that 13 North Koreans, a manager and 12 employees of a North Korean restaurant, had defected from the DPRK and requested asylum in South Korea. There have been number of group defections of by sea or overland from North Korea. Mostly those groups were composed of their families. It is rare to see mass defections when the group is comprised of unrelated individuals.<\/p>\n

The Ministry of Unification quoted the defectors as saying, \u201cWe aspired to go to South Korea as we knew about its economic achievements through TV or Internet,\u201d and \u201cAs the economic sanctions intensified, we thought that there would be no hope in North Korea.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0However, it is difficult to believe that their ostensible statement explains the real reason for their claiming asylum in the south.<\/p>\n

\u25c6 Surveillance is slack in China, but most potential defectors hesitate to defect because of family remaining in North Korea.<\/h2>\n

The writer has often dined in restaurants hiring female employees from North Korea in Shenyang, Dandong, Beijing, and Yanbian, China. The restaurants are owned and operated by North Korean companies. On occasion, female employees work in hotel bars without direct supervision from North Korean managers.<\/p>\n

The writer often witnessed young female employees going to beauty parlors or public baths in Yanbian city. If they intended to escape, they could have done it. It is not unimaginably difficult to escape from the work place for these employees.<\/p>\n

Living and working together as a group may discourage employees of North Korean overseas business ventures from contacting South Koreans or foreign reporters, connecting to the internet, or watching South Korean TV,<\/p>\n

The chain that prevents them from defecting is an \u2018unseen fear.\u2019 This fear derives from the question of what would happen to their family after their defection.<\/p>\n

There must have been anguish and hesitation in a short period when the 13 defectors of \u2018Ryukyung Restaurant\u2019 decided to escape. They knew that their family in North Korea would face a severe punishment under the North Korean legal system.<\/p>\n

But they chose to defect. The reason must be that they felt a kind of fear that they would be executed.<\/p>\n

\u25c6 Repercussions yet to come<\/h2>\n

What is the most serious political crime in North Korea? It is a betrayal against the Kim Jong-un regime. This is followed, in terms of seriousness, by the crime of fraternizing with South Koreans. These crimes are supposed to be punished by internment in a political prisoners\u2019 camp or, in some casese, execution. We don\u2019t know what happened to \u2018Ryukyung Restaurant\u2019. But we presume that they had reasons to escape. Possibly as a desperate attempt to save their own lives. That 13 defectors agreed together on such drastic actions may point to their defection as part of a wider, politically serious affair. They may have been facing a harsh punishment if they returned to North Korea.<\/p>\n

That was not a problem of financial debt for the restaurant staff. Such a problem would at the most have them facing either a demotion or a light reprimand. Certainly nothing so serious that they would feel they would ruin their lives by returning to North Korea.<\/p>\n

Memories of the execution of other high ranking officials - Jang Sung-thak; powerman, Hyon Yong-chol; Head of Ministry of the People\u2019s Armed Forces, and Lee Young-gil; Commander-in-Chief of Staff in the People\u2019s Armed Forces \u2013 are fresh in the minds of North Koreans.<\/p>\n

Besides those cases, it is reported that entertainers or middle rank officials were also executed. The rumors are widely spread that the executions were carried out by heavy machine gun, designed to tear apart the target, or a flamethrower to burn the victim alive.<\/p>\n

The writer often receives information from reporting partners in North Korea that officials have been arrested for a trivial reason and sent to \u2018management centers\u2019 (political prisoners\u2019 camp).<\/p>\n

Kim Jong-un continues to rule North Korea with an iron fist. The government is taking a \u201cNo mercy for those who do not obey\u201d to shore up the leader\u2019s unstable regime.<\/p>\n

The 13 defectors of \u2018Ryukyung Restaurant\u2019 are those individuals who should have strong loyalty to the regime, and were consequently permitted to work overseas. Their group defection is concrete evidence of the adverse effects of Kim Jung-un\u2019s reign of terror. (ISHIMARU JIRO)<\/p>\n

\"Rimjingang_banner001\"<\/a>*\u00a0Editor\u2019s notes on North Korean reporters<\/a>
<\/a>ALL REPORTS >>><\/a> <\/strong>
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DPRK MAP >><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  On April 8, the South Korean Ministry of Unification announced that 13 North Koreans, a manager and 12 employees \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[7,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.02.asiapress.org\/rimjin-gang\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}