ID :
196891
Mon, 07/25/2011 - 06:46
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/196891
The shortlink copeid
Secret couriers work as new warriors against N. Korea
(ATTN: Yonhap News Agency uses pseudonyms for N. defectors for security reasons)
By Kim Kwang-tae
CHEONAN, South Korea, July 25 (Yonhap) -- Lee Sang-yoon is always ready to fly to China on short notice on a courier mission that even UPS and other top global shipping companies can't match.
He is not an ordinary delivery man.
What Lee brings to South Korea from his frequent trips to China is documents or USB drives that his "helpers" have smuggled out of North Korea. They include video footage shot undercover and other sensitive materials that could make him a public enemy of the North's communist regime.
The young North Korean defector is one of a group of newly emerging warriors who risk their lives for the mission, driven largely by their strong wish to let the world know of what they believe is worsening conditions in their former communist homeland.
Such covert courier missions drew fresh attention in the intelligence world last month when Lee's South Korean missionary group unveiled a North Korean police document, which, among other things, chronicled several cases of cannibalism amid an acute food shortage in the communist country. The document was later shared with government analysts.
The secret effort to glean intelligence through interaction with North Koreans has gained new urgency in recent years, especially after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered an apparent stroke.
In an age of spy satellites and the Internet, North Korea largely remains as an intelligence black hole, as the isolated country keeps a tight lid on almost all information and denies its people access to the outside world.
Still, the wall of secrecy has begun to crack, as some North Koreans fed up with chronic poverty are willing to trade sensitive information for money, according to North Korean defectors and South Korean activists.
"Those who have access to sensitive documents in North Korea know that they can make money by selling them," said Rev. Kim Seung-eun, the head of Caleb Mission, a small South Korean church that claims it has "helpers" inside North Korea.
The new development is drawing a growing number of intelligence operatives to China's northeastern areas near the border with North Korea, a key conduit for leaked documents and secret footage, according to North Korean defectors.
"I can go to China right away, if necessary," Lee said in a recent interview in the Caleb Mission's small office in Cheonan, some 90 kilometers south of Seoul.
Lee said he has brought documents and USB drives in "countless times," and is determined to continue to do it, though he said he always fears that he may be arrested by Chinese police and punished.
The interview was frequently interrupted, as Lee was answering phone calls from his fellow couriers and North Korean contacts in the border areas dealing with the latest delivery of a package from North Korea.
Mobile phones smuggled from China have played a key role in arranging the risky business and leaking sensitive news on North Korea to the outside world, defectors said.
In a separate interview in Seoul, Park Byung-ho, another North Korean defector, said he used to obtain North Korean documents through ethnic Koreans in China, but now he prefers phone contacts to disseminate news quickly.
Many ethnic Koreans in China can speak Korean and can visit North Korea relatively easily, he said.
Couriers also have helped some North Korean defectors extricate family members they left behind when they escaped, or get them photos, video footage or cosmetics from South Korea, defectors said.
South Korean law strictly bans any unauthorized contacts with North Korea or North Koreans, but a full enforcement of the law is realistically impossible.
The life of a secret courier is realistically portrayed in the South Korean hit movie "Poongsan," which recently opened in local theaters.
The film, which is named after a breed of hunting dogs from North Korea, tells the tale of a mysterious man who delivers photos and video footage of separated families across the heavily fortified border in just three hours.
The inter-Korean border is sealed and there is no mail, phone or other direct means of communication between ordinary residents of the two divided states.
In the movie, the mysterious courier brings the lover of a senior North Korean defector to the South at the request of South Korea's spy agency, though there is no Hollywood ending.
The duo narrowly escaped capture by armed North Korean guards before crossing the border into the South, but they were later killed in two separate incidents.
North Korean defections across the land border are rare. Most North Koreans come to South Korea via China. The number has recently surpassed 21,000.
Many North Korean defectors claim that bribes helped them flee across the border into China.
"North Korean soldiers often take defectors to China in return for money," Rev. Kim of Caleb Mission said, noting border guards are green with envy if other soldiers make money.
By Kim Kwang-tae
CHEONAN, South Korea, July 25 (Yonhap) -- Lee Sang-yoon is always ready to fly to China on short notice on a courier mission that even UPS and other top global shipping companies can't match.
He is not an ordinary delivery man.
What Lee brings to South Korea from his frequent trips to China is documents or USB drives that his "helpers" have smuggled out of North Korea. They include video footage shot undercover and other sensitive materials that could make him a public enemy of the North's communist regime.
The young North Korean defector is one of a group of newly emerging warriors who risk their lives for the mission, driven largely by their strong wish to let the world know of what they believe is worsening conditions in their former communist homeland.
Such covert courier missions drew fresh attention in the intelligence world last month when Lee's South Korean missionary group unveiled a North Korean police document, which, among other things, chronicled several cases of cannibalism amid an acute food shortage in the communist country. The document was later shared with government analysts.
The secret effort to glean intelligence through interaction with North Koreans has gained new urgency in recent years, especially after North Korean leader Kim Jong-il suffered an apparent stroke.
In an age of spy satellites and the Internet, North Korea largely remains as an intelligence black hole, as the isolated country keeps a tight lid on almost all information and denies its people access to the outside world.
Still, the wall of secrecy has begun to crack, as some North Koreans fed up with chronic poverty are willing to trade sensitive information for money, according to North Korean defectors and South Korean activists.
"Those who have access to sensitive documents in North Korea know that they can make money by selling them," said Rev. Kim Seung-eun, the head of Caleb Mission, a small South Korean church that claims it has "helpers" inside North Korea.
The new development is drawing a growing number of intelligence operatives to China's northeastern areas near the border with North Korea, a key conduit for leaked documents and secret footage, according to North Korean defectors.
"I can go to China right away, if necessary," Lee said in a recent interview in the Caleb Mission's small office in Cheonan, some 90 kilometers south of Seoul.
Lee said he has brought documents and USB drives in "countless times," and is determined to continue to do it, though he said he always fears that he may be arrested by Chinese police and punished.
The interview was frequently interrupted, as Lee was answering phone calls from his fellow couriers and North Korean contacts in the border areas dealing with the latest delivery of a package from North Korea.
Mobile phones smuggled from China have played a key role in arranging the risky business and leaking sensitive news on North Korea to the outside world, defectors said.
In a separate interview in Seoul, Park Byung-ho, another North Korean defector, said he used to obtain North Korean documents through ethnic Koreans in China, but now he prefers phone contacts to disseminate news quickly.
Many ethnic Koreans in China can speak Korean and can visit North Korea relatively easily, he said.
Couriers also have helped some North Korean defectors extricate family members they left behind when they escaped, or get them photos, video footage or cosmetics from South Korea, defectors said.
South Korean law strictly bans any unauthorized contacts with North Korea or North Koreans, but a full enforcement of the law is realistically impossible.
The life of a secret courier is realistically portrayed in the South Korean hit movie "Poongsan," which recently opened in local theaters.
The film, which is named after a breed of hunting dogs from North Korea, tells the tale of a mysterious man who delivers photos and video footage of separated families across the heavily fortified border in just three hours.
The inter-Korean border is sealed and there is no mail, phone or other direct means of communication between ordinary residents of the two divided states.
In the movie, the mysterious courier brings the lover of a senior North Korean defector to the South at the request of South Korea's spy agency, though there is no Hollywood ending.
The duo narrowly escaped capture by armed North Korean guards before crossing the border into the South, but they were later killed in two separate incidents.
North Korean defections across the land border are rare. Most North Koreans come to South Korea via China. The number has recently surpassed 21,000.
Many North Korean defectors claim that bribes helped them flee across the border into China.
"North Korean soldiers often take defectors to China in return for money," Rev. Kim of Caleb Mission said, noting border guards are green with envy if other soldiers make money.
