By Jun Ji-hye
North Korea has reportedly set up land-based sensors along its border with China to block attempts to flee the country.
The North’s national security agency has installed unmanned detection devices at barbed-wire fences located in the North Korea-China border area upon its leader Kim Jong-un’s order, Yonhap News Agency said, citing sources familiar with the matter.
It is the first time testimony on the land-based sensors has been reported. Previous reports had it that the Kim regime set up infrared search cameras along the border to detect people trying to defect.
The young leader has stressed the importance of effectively dealing with defectors as quickly as possible especially after Thae Yong-ho, who was deputy ambassador at the North Korean Embassy in Britain, fled to South Korea last August, becoming one of the highest-ranking North Korean officials to escape the repressive state, according to sources.
The land-based sensors have been placed on well-known escape routes, such as Hyesan in Ryanggang Province and around Hoeryong in North Hamgyong Province, the sources said, adding that the North plans to set up more sensors.
The sensors are designed to detect motion by humans or animals. Once any motion is detected, relevant information is transmitted to security forces stationed near the border area.
“Kim Jong-un ordered the national security agency not to waste too much time on dealing with defectors and to solve the matter at the earliest possible date,” a source said. “In accordance with such an order, the agency has expanded its informers working at the border area.”
The informers hired by the agency even work together with some North Korean defectors living in the South to concoct a trap to hunt potential defectors.
“The informers are asking the defectors in the South to disguise themselves as brokers who pretend to assist would-be defectors,” the source said. “The disguised brokers contact residents in the North and tempt them to defect. Then, the informers are hunting for those who are trying to defect.”
In this process, dozens of residents have been arrested by the agency and executed for espionage, the source said, adding that the Kim regime’s reign of terror has resulted in a decrease in the number of residents attempting to defect.
The head of a Seoul-based group helping North Koreans defect to the South, asking not to be named, said 20 to 30 defectors have entered South Korea via China each month until last year, but this number has fallen off noticeably from this year.
Thae fled to the South with his wife and children, revealing that his disillusionment with Kim’s reign of terror prompted his defection. Since his arrival, Thae has been expressing his willingness to devote the rest of his life to the reunification of the two Koreas.