By Here is yet another country that North Koreans have found a way to defect from:
A Japanese daily says a group of 12 North Korean men that were working in Amur Region of the Russian Far East defected to South Korea in September.
According to the Mainichi Daily News Thursday, the 12 men took asylum in the South with help from the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
The report said the defection marked the first time for a group of North Korean laborers from Russia to take refuge in the South.
Quoting Russian law enforcement authorities, the daily said four more North Korean laborers in the Amur region are seeking to defect to the South. The paper said the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the South Korean government are currently taking steps to facilitate the four laborers’ defections. [KBS Global]
North Koreans have escaped before from these logging camps, but the article is right that this is the first time I know of such a large group defecting together from Russia. For those looking to learn more about these Siberian logging camps I highly recommending watching this BBC video documentary about this virtual slave labor cash cow for the North Korean government. The documentary also shows that many North Koreans have defected and stayed in Russia as well.
10:29 pm on December 24th, 2009 1
I am confused. How are they defecting? Is their a South Korean embassy in the region? Are they defecting to the UN High Commission? How do they get to South Korea? Are the Russians allowing defections from North Korean workers?
If the Ruskies are now opening the consulates to North Korean defectors, this would seem to be a change in policy from the past. No?
8:30 am on December 25th, 2009 2
The article doesn’t give details, but my best guess is that the defectors defected through a South Korean consulate in Russia with the assistance of the UNHCR.
I tend to doubt any Russian involvement in this considering they are the ones importing the slave labor in the first place.