The North Korean security forces in the
country’s northeasterly border region are not letting up their attempts to coax
defectors to return from South Korea, it has emerged. According to a source in
the area, her regular people’s unit [inminban] meeting was recently dominated by a lecture concerning related instructions handed down
by the security services.
“In the meeting, people were told
that if they happened to make contact with defected family members then they
should tell them, ‘Even though you betrayed the Motherland, your hometown, your
parents, brothers and sisters, were you to return to the Motherland then not only
would you be forgiven; you would also be provided with an apartment and a job to
encourage you to work hard. These are the wishes of our General’,” the source
from North Hamkyung Province told Daily NK on the 14th.
“Most of the chairwomen who run these meetings mentioned that people who returned to the North already are
living well,” she went on. “They said that they were not taken to re-education
camps and had been given apartments. In this way, they are urging people to try and get defected
family members to come back here.”
According to the source, some people who
have returned from South Korea to Hyesan in Yangkang and Yeonsa County in North
Hamkyung have indeed been given apartments. However, they have also been allocated work in mines and on farms, causing local people to suggest that they are
actually being “revolutionized”.
The term “revolutionize” means that since they
are deemed to have acted against the policies, orders and line of the Party, they are in need of re-education through hard labor and additional
ideological indoctrination.
People have expressed mixed feelings
regarding the official attempts to lure escapees back to the North. On the one
hand, armed with knowledge of Chinese capitalism, many are confident that
“people who have opened their eyes to that society [capitalism in South Korea]
will never fall for [the offer of an apartment and a job]” and “If the security
officers weren’t bound by their duties, they would laugh at this just like we
are,” the source said.
Besides which, “They tell us not to make
illegal calls, so I don’t know how they’re expecting us to convey this message
to defectors abroad. If that is what they want then they should stop regulating
phone calls to that country,” the source pointed out, before joking, “If we’re
caught calling abroad, we can just make the excuse that we’re telling family to
come back.”
On the other hand, there are others who are impressed by the free housing and job offer. The most notable returnee, and a prominent example of the state
keeping its promise, is that of defector Park Jung Sook, who returned in
May 2012 and, shortly thereafter, took part in a press conference to criticize
the South Korean government.
Plenty of people are aware that “even
though she betrayed her country and family, she is living well with her son in
Pyongyang,” the source said.
