Recall that on July 26, the North Korean authorities announced that in their territory, a registered person who has signs COVID-19. North Korea prior to this, officially declared that the country no sick with coronavirus. The matter was taken under personal control of Kim Jong-UN, who in connection with the situation convened a meeting of the Central Committee of the party. In connection with the incident, as stated by the official media of the country, Juche, Kaesong, where the patient, introduced strict measures of isolation and quarantine. It was also noted that this person three years ago fled to South Korea, but on 19 July, returned home.
In South Korea, the statement first has caused scepticism. Many thought that North Korea, saying about absence in the country COVID-19 did not believe, trying to find an excuse for the outbreak of coronavirus, which is now difficult to hide, putting the blame on South Korea. A rather unusual look and the story itself, that the person who three years ago escaped from North Korea, has returned there from a developed South Korea. Although cases of such “re-shoots-returns” have been, but still the skeptics missing.
whatever it was, but the authorities, experts and journalists of South Korea on the channels rushed to verify the information and it soon became clear that at least with the escape, the DPRK will likely not cheated. This immediately provoked a chain of scandals and uncomfortable questions regarding the effectiveness of the South Korean army and police.
Quite quickly it was established that a potential “main character” of this detective story really exists. It is a 24-year-old Kim, who in 2017 defected to South Korea. For some time he studied in one of colleges in South Korea, but was unable to finish and got to work.
Recently, it was questioned by the police. One of his friends accused him of rape, saying that he took her home, gave them alcohol, had sex with her against her will. Kim himself denied the fact of rape, because after interrogation was released, but its soon going to be arrested.
Then it turned out that Kim’s phone is not answered, and he disappeared. Indirect evidence of possible escape lent it to another friend, also a former defector from the Country of Juche. According to her, he recently SMS messages hinted to her that he was going to return to the DPRK. The woman decided to report it to the police, but the statement she refused to accept, saying it was “not their jurisdiction”.
In the end, South Korea’s military, which began to check every inch of the territory adjacent to the border, on the island Kanha that in the West of the country, near the border with North Korea, found a bag with things that belonged to Kim.
it was concluded that Kim did escape, through a drain pipe to��oraya is located on the banks of the border river. From there, Kim probably already swam to North Korea. It was also found that on the night of July 18, Kim took a cab to the island Kanha and went out there.
According to the statement, the DPRK authorities, he came to them on July 19 that coincides. Note that also swim around in the same area, using branches and the trunk of the tree, Kim in 2017 came to South Korea. Apparently, he remembered this way. He also previously lived in the North Korean Kaesong, and therefore knows the border strip. Thus, the version on the re escape is almost confirmed, now only specify the technical details.
This provoked a scandal in South Korea. First, large questions arose to the military, especially the marine units guarding the border on the island Kanha. It turned out that Kim went to all the numerous systems of control and surveillance, which the South Korean side of the border is crammed with strip, and has quietly gone unnoticed in North Korea.
Many immediately recalled similar occasions when having the status of “the most fortified and protected in the world,” the inter-Korean border in fact has been full of “holes” through which you can enter. So, a few years ago North Korean soldiers came to South Korean checkpoint, and on his arrival found out only when he knocked at the doors of the building where sat the guards of the South. Last year, North Korean fishing vessel reached the South Korean port of Sokcho, and one of the fishermen of the DPRK went on the pier and asked passers-by to borrow the phone to call friends. Now here’s a similar style in the case of “swimmer” Kim, who twice – there and back again – crossed the inter-Korean border undetected.
Questions arose and the police, which dismissed the applicant’s intent to warn of escape. At the police station say that the woman’s story was inconsistent and was impossible to understand what the conversation is about the escape in North Korea. The same is categorical that everything is clearly explained, and it is just shrugged off like an annoying fly, not wanting to work. The woman said that she was angry and on a mobile phone took a picture of police officers who stood at the entrance to the station. She wants to prove that he did come into the station.
In any case, this whole situation shows once again that sometimes in inter-Korean relations there are incidents that could form the basis of the twisted detective novel. However the writers if they wrote a story with a similar plot, most likely, I would say that it is “too fantastic”.
as for the version with a disease defector coronavirus, the government of the South, all categorically deny that. According to the statementpits Centre against the spread of diseases in the RK, Kim wasn’t among the infected COVID-19, nor among those who came in contact with potentially sick, and therefore arrived in North Korea, most likely, healthy. But here it would be difficult to verify who is actually right: southerners saying that Kim was not ill, or northerners, who argue that he’s showing signs COVID-19, but because they are forced to enter in the whole city strict quarantine.
