YONHAP NEWS

(LEAD) S. Korean defected to N. Korea in daylight: official

By Sam Kim
SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- The South Korean man who defected to North Korea earlier this week is believed to have crossed the border in daylight, a South Korean defense official said, concluding the incident took place a day later than Pyongyang claims.

   "Chances are that he defected in the daytime on Tuesday," the Joint Chiefs of Staff official told reporters, asking not to be named citing policy. North Korea's official media had said Kang Tong-rim, 30, crossed the Demilitarized Zone on Monday.

   Defections from the capitalist South to the North are extremely rare. The South Korean government says Kang has been on a police wanted list since Sept. 25 for an assault incident.

   The JCS official said it was highly unlikely that the crossing took place in the dark because patrol is ramped up in the nighttime.

   "Even the muffled sound of a leaf trampled would have been heard from a nearby sentry post in the nighttime," the official said, adding the section of barbed wire that was cut open is only 40m away from the nearest night post.

   Soldiers noticed no damage in the barbed wire when they patrolled the area on Monday, he said, adding the closest guard post used in daylight is 700m away.

   "We believe Kang pushed his way through a thicket of scrubs and reeds after he cut open the two layers of barbed wire," the official said, adding footprints were found trailing northward.

   Kang served at the army base that oversees the area from 2001-2003, he said.

   "He knew the area well," he said.

   The official could not explain the discrepancy between the North Korean claim and the South Korean conclusion concerning the day on which the defection occurred.

   "No peculiar movement was spotted on the North Korean side of the border on Monday," he said.

   The North's official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday in a report monitored in Seoul that Kang defected after years of "longing" for the communist neighbor.

   "He is pleased with the accomplishment of his desire for defection," it said. "During the military service he made several attempts to defect owing to his longing for the northern half of Korea, but in vain." Two years of military service is mandatory for all able-bodied men in South Korea.

   According to the report, Kang raised pigs on a farm in South Korea's southwestern region after quitting his job at a Samsung-affiliated semiconductor company. Samsung Electronics Co. said Kang's name could not be found on its list of former workers.

   While about 17,000 North Koreans have come to the South, mostly via China, since the 1950-53 Korean War, South Koreans have rarely sought to enter the impoverished neighbor.

   In 2004, the South Korean military found a barbed wire fence had been breached near a frontline observation post. It suspected a man in his thirties had defected to the North, which made no related announcement.

   samkim@yna.co.kr
(END)