[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter] The North Korean man apprehended in the early hours of the 16th is believed to have defected by sea and moved inland through a drainage channel along the beach. Military authorities are facing criticism for repeated failures in coastal surveillance, as a similar incident involving a defector through a drainage channel occurred last year on Ganghwa Island.
On the 17th, the Joint Chiefs of Staff stated, "The North Korean man wore a wetsuit and flippers and came ashore near the Unification Observatory via the sea, presumably passing through a drainage channel installed beneath the coastal fence." In the previous day's briefing, the military said the man was spotted around 4:20 a.m. on CCTV at the Jejin checkpoint.
However, detailed investigations revealed that the man was detected multiple times by military surveillance equipment after coming ashore. In other words, although the man was exposed to surveillance equipment while moving several kilometers inland toward the Jejin checkpoint, the military failed to recognize this at all.
After the case of Kim (24), who defected through a drainage channel on Ganghwa Island in July last year, the military announced plans to strengthen coastal drainage channel blockades. Nevertheless, problems remain in managing drainage channels along the East Coast.
Meanwhile, the military secured the North Korean man's custody at 7:30 a.m. It took more than three hours from recognizing the unidentified man on the Jejin checkpoint CCTV to securing him. The man was found on a mountainside less than 500 meters from the Jejin checkpoint. At the time of discovery, he was reportedly squatting in an exhausted state. If it took three hours to find a man who declared his intention to defect near the checkpoint, there are concerns that it would have taken even longer to search if the individual had been a North Korean soldier infiltrating for military purposes.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff's Combat Readiness Inspection Office plans to conduct an investigation starting today, jointly with the Ground Operations Command, to determine whether there were any issues with the unit's security posture. With the coastal surveillance and monitoring network breached, significant disciplinary actions against the battalion commander and others in the unit are expected.
The unit where this incident occurred was also the site of a North Korean soldier's "fence defection" in November last year and the so-called "knock defection" in October 2012, when a North Korean soldier knocked on a military post door to express his intention to defect. Additionally, in June 2019, five days after a North Korean fishing boat docked at Samcheok Port under the jurisdiction of the 23rd Division in the "Samcheok Port Knock Defection" incident, then Minister of National Defense Jeong Kyeong-doo issued an apology and pledged to strengthen security measures.
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