It is now been disclosed that the 22 North Koreans picked up on two rubber boats on the South Korean side of the maritime border between the two Koreas that were returned to North Korea and then allegedly executed were in fact returned because North Korea requested them be sent back:

North Korea requested the repatriation of 22 North Koreans whose boats drifted into South Korean waters in the West Sea on Feb. 8, a South Korean government official admitted Monday. The government has been under pressure to explain why it turned the 22 back to the North the same day they arrived in the South, without interrogating them individually even for just a few hours.

According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff, North Korea contacted the South through the international standard radio frequency for commercial vessels around 8:20 a.m. on Feb. 8, asking the South to send back two drifting North Korean vessels. At that time, the 22 North Koreans were being transferred from their rubber boats to a South Korean ship. It was about three hours after they were first spotted at 5:10 a.m. [Chosun Ilbo]

If you look at the timing here, what is the odds that these 22 people left in two rubber rafts in the middle of the night in the heart of winter, on a national holiday to go fishing as claimed? I think it is quite clear that these 22 people were defectors and were probably taking advantage of a lowered amount of vigilance monitoring the border by North Korea due to the national Lunar New Year holiday to slip across the border.

If incoming President Lee Myung-bak wants to set an example on how his government will treat future North Korean refugees he can begin by vigorously investigating this case, exposing what happened, and bring criminal charges against anybody that warrants it.

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