119
submitted 1 month ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

A North Korean defector living in South Korea was detained on Tuesday after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarized border, in an apparent attempt to get back to the North, Yonhap news agency reported.

The incident took place at around 1:30 a.m. (16:30 GMT on Monday) at the Tongil Bridge in Paju, northwest of the capital Seoul, after the man ignored warnings from soldiers guarding the bridge and attempted to drive through, Yonhap said, citing city police.

Paju police referred queries on the incident to provincial police authorities. The northern Gyeonggi police agency could not be reached for comment.

The man aged in his 30s who had defected more than a decade ago told police that he was trying to return to North Korea after struggling to settle in the South, the report said.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 2 points 1 month ago

Don't understand this. If he comes back to the North, he would be tortured&executed with his family. If living in SK is that terrible isn't easier to just unalive themselves?

[-] m0darn@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

If he comes back to the North, he would be tortured&executed with his family.

Are you basing this statement on anything other than your impression that the North Korean regime is cruel for the sake of being cruel, and everyone in the military and government is incompetent?

It might be true, but it's also possible that the North Koreans would use it as the obvious propaganda coup it is and send him on speaking tours all over the country/world.

It's also quite possible that he's mentally unwell and isn't making rational choices. Or that he's trying to escape an abusive situation.

Don't get me wrong, the North Korean government is not good, I'm just saying that the assumption he'll be tortured and executed underestimates them.

PS. When you say "comes back" it means that you are in that place. So your sentence implies that you're in North Korea. I'm sure you meant "goes back".

[-] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 3 points 1 month ago

Well, they don't appear to use them as propaganda. When Travis T. King crossed the border, they arrested him and not used as propaganda "see? He hated SK and USA so much"

Same for Otto warmbier, instead of "see? After he saw our wonderful country, he wanted to take a piece of propaganda back home to always remember us" he was arrested, tortured and sent back dead.

I do not recall any situation when they used something like this as positive propaganda instead of a public execution

When they did that experiment on YouTube showing how wonderful is life in north Korea (if you're a daughter of the elite), it lasted until it suddenly went like "Winston Smith never existed"

[-] HorseRabbit@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 month ago
[-] Moonrise2473@feddit.it 0 points 1 month ago

Source for what, the executions? It's the North Korean government itself, since those are public

this post was submitted on 01 Oct 2024
119 points (96.9% liked)

World News

39161 readers
1415 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS