Four North Korean residents escape from North Korea on a wooden boat, ``Another 'hole' in the surveillance system at the North-South border,'' South Korean media says

A small wooden boat with North Korean residents on board was discovered off the coast of Sokcho in northeastern South Korea on the 24th of this month, and the South Korean military took custody of the four people on board on the same day. All of them expressed their intention to defect.
There is. Meanwhile, South Korea's Yonhap News reported that even though the wooden boat with four people on board crossed the Northern Limit Line (NLL, the maritime military demarcation line between South and North Korea) and sailed south to the coast of Sokcho, a civilian fishing boat reported
He pointed out that the wooden ship was not discovered until The South Korean military has failed to capture North Korean ships that have crossed the NLL in the past, and Yonhap reported that ``another hole has opened in the NLL's surveillance system.''
. According to the South Korean military and maritime police, at around 7:10 a.m. on the 24th, a South Korean fishing boat spotted a suspicious small wooden boat at sea about 11 kilometers east of Sokcho. Afterwards, the marine police were dispatched after receiving a report.
The four North Korean residents aboard the wooden boat were taken into custody. The occupants of the vehicle were a family consisting of one man and three women, and at the time of the discovery they were unarmed and not wearing military uniform. wooden boat moving
The route it took is unknown, but it is believed that it crossed the NLL and crossed into South Korea. The four people expressed their intention to defect to the South Korean government's joint intelligence investigation team.
There have been recent cases of North Korean residents attempting to defect via the Sohae (West Sea) route west of the Korean Peninsula or via China, but North Korean residents have attempted to defect through the Sea of Japan.
It's been about 4 years since November 2019. Until 2019, more than 1,000 North Korean defectors entered South Korea every year, but border security has been tightened due to the spread of the COVID-19 virus.
However, it has sharply decreased since 2020. Last year, there were only 67 people. However, the number of people has increased again this year, and according to South Korea's Ministry of Unification, there were 139 people as of the end of last month.
On the other hand, when a North Korean wooden ship crossed the NLL this time, South Korean military authorities were unable to capture it. According to the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff,
The military was said to have been preparing for various situations as unusual signs were seen on the sea near NLL from early morning on that day. A patrol plane and a high-speed boat were sent, but the wooden ship remained until a private fishing boat was alerted.
could not be found. The Marine Police reportedly took action after receiving a report. Professor Kim Dong-yeop of the North Korean Graduate University, a member of the Navy, said in an interview with the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo, ``It was not for the purpose of asylum.
If it had been an invasion, one major facility in the East Sea (South Korea's name for the Sea of Japan) might have already been breached by now." Naval Headquarters National Policy Audit held by the National Defense Committee of the South Korean National Assembly on the 24th
However, criticism continued, and Rep. Kim Byung-joo of the main opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, pointed out, ``I can't help but think that starting the operation after receiving a report from residents is a failure of the warning operation.''
According to Yonhap News, this is not the first time South Korean military authorities have been unable to capture a North Korean ship that has crossed the NLL. In June 2019, four North Korean fishermen boarded the
The fishing boat was discovered by a civilian when it washed ashore at the pier at Sancheok Port in Gangwon-do, northeastern South Korea. In addition, in October 2009, the mosquitoes near Sokcho
A North Korean ship was found off the coast of Gangneung, but military authorities were unable to confirm that the ship had crossed the border. Meanwhile, in May of this year, several North Korean residents boarded a fishing boat and crossed the NLL on the Yellow Sea into South Korea.
In that case, the residents were taken into custody immediately after they crossed the NLL. However, unlike the Yellow Sea, it is difficult to monitor small vessels in the Sea of Japan. According to Yonhap News, a South Korean Navy official said in an interview, ``
"There are no islands in the Tokai (Sea of Japan), and the NLL is over 400 kilometers long, making it difficult to catch all the small wooden ships from the north that cross (the NLL)."