This article was originally published on Dong-A Ilbo and translated by OKN Correspondent.
Testimonies have come out that North Korea filmed a video of North Korean defectors being forcibly repatriated via Panmunjom in November 2019 and used it for collective education for about a year starting from the spring of 2020. While some have pointed out that the forced repatriation case could become a psychological barrier for North Korean people to defect, it is the first time being testified that North Korea used the video for its education.
According to sources in North Korea, on the 24th, an education official, who conducted collective education, and multiple North Korean defectors said that the filmed video had been shown in North Korea and also at the Consulates, restaurants, and factories in three Northeast provinces of China, including Shenyang and Dandong, from spring 2020 to 2021. The North Korean defectors who claimed to have received collective education in North Korea and watched the repatriation video released by the Unification Ministry on the 18th said that the video was the same as in North Korea. They also said this video made many North Korean workers in China give up defecting.
A North Korean defector who claimed to have watched the video said, “the leadership ordered this education (through the repatriation video) in Pyongyang, and the video was taken from the second floor of the North Korean guard post looking down when the two fishermen were handed over to the North via Panmunjom T1(Central Conference Room).”
“The education officials (who showed the repatriation video in the North) warned that it was determined to send the defectors back to North Korea when arriving in South Korea,” the defector said. A source said, “while they just said “don’t go” and showed premade videos to prevent people from defecting in the past, the actual repatriation video at Panmunjom was a shock itself.”
According to the Unification Ministry, the number of North Korean defectors entering South Korea, which remained at 1,000 annually from 2012 to 2019 (1,047), plunged to 229 in 2020 and 63 in 2021. Dong-A Ilbo obtained and disclosed the “lecture and political project material” that North Korea showed together with the fishermen’s forced repatriation at Panmunjom. According to State Security Department’s material in March 2020, North Korea has reinforced its internal control by revealing that soldiers illegally stole cigarettes and money during the quarantine process, taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation.
