Military criticized for continued border control failures
A guard post in the Demilitarized Zone in Goseong, Gangwon Province, is seen in this Feb. 14, 2019, photo. Yonhap
By Jung Da-min
The military has come under fire for repeated failures in border control, especially as multiple border crossing cases have taken place in recent years in the eastern coastal region.
On Sunday, the military said an unidentified person had crossed the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) into North Korea the night before. On Monday, it said that the person is presumed to be a North Korean defector who had come to the South in November 2020 by passing through the DMZ in the opposite direction.
An official of the Ministry of National Defense said the military has identified the man using surveillance footage at the civilian passage restriction line on the South Korean side in Goseong, Gangwon Province.
“He was seen in Jan. 1 surveillance footage captured by a camera installed around the civilian control line at around noon. In the process of identifying the person, the military found that he is highly likely to be the man who defected from the North to the South in November 2020, based on his appearance,” the official told reporters.
According to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), Sunday, personnel of Korea's 22nd Infantry Division observed the person in the DMZ at around 9:20 p.m. by using a thermal observation device (TOD). While investigating it, the division belatedly confirmed footage of the man climbing a fence at around 6:40 p.m.
It brought criticism over the military's lax discipline, as the timeline showed the military failed to detect the man until about three hours after the border breach. Then the military again failed to stop him from crossing into North Korea, as he crossed the military demarcation line (MDL) into North Korea at around 10:40 p.m.
Adding to the criticism is the fact that the military has been making similar mistakes in its border control in recent years. Asides from this case, there have been other cases of North Koreans coming to the South Korean side by crossing the inter-Korean border.
In February 2021, a defector in a wetsuit and wearing swimming flippers made it down the eastern coast undetected through a damaged drain pipe. He was found walking around a road after he came ashore in the South. In 2012, a defecting North Korean soldier scaled barbed-wire border fences without being detected and knocked on the door of a South Korean barracks to get attention.
The South Korean military has since ?installed more surveillance gear, including the electronic sensors. Nevertheless critics say more border control failures could keep happening as long as the current lax vigilance continues.
“The military's response was poor, as they failed to do anything for three hours,” the main opposition People Power Party said in a statement, Sunday. “This is the chronic disease caused by the Moon Jae-in administration's easygoing sense on the issue of security.”