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ROK man heads north to DPRK

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-28 09:51

PYONGYANG: A 30-year-old man from the Republic of Korea (ROK) defected on Monday to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) after crossing the eastern part of the Military Demarcation Line, the official news agency KCNA said Tuesday.

Kang Tong-rim, who lived in the southern province of Jolla, was pleased with his "accomplishment," the KCNA said.

Kang, from Polgyo township of Posong county, served in the ROK army from 2001 to 2003. During his service, he made several failed attempts to defect as he longed for the DPRK, the KCNA said.

He was now taken good care of by a relevant department of the DPRK, the KCNA added.

The man worked at Samsung Electronics' semiconductor unit and more recently at a pig farm and defected by walking across the heavily mined border.

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Crossings are rare through the razor-wire and land-mined Demilitarized Zone buffer that divides the peninsula. But defections to the economically isolated North from the affluent South are even rarer, with the last one likely taking place about four years ago.

The rival Koreas remain technically at war because they never replaced the armistice ending their 1950-53 conflict with a peace treaty.

"He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed," KCNA said.

The ROK's military and spy agency could not immediately confirm the report.

"He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ," KCNA said.

In 2005, KCNA said, a man sailed through a volley of bullets to defect to the DPRK. A military spokesman in Seoul said at the time that the man's family suspected he was drunk.

Xinhua-Reuters