The North Korean soldier who crossed the demilitarised zone was only 17 years old, it's now been revealed:
A teenage North Korean soldier who defected after killing two of his superiors and crossing the heavily armed border to South Korea on Saturday has told interrogators he did it because he saw "no hope" in the North.
Investigators quoted the soldier as saying he learned of the huge gap between the two Koreas through the joint-Korean Kaesong Industrial Complex. He worked at a frontline guard post within the Joint Security Area where North Korean soldiers oversee and control transaction of goods and workers commuting to the Kaesong complex.
A government source on Sunday said, "The primary reason for the soldier's defection is that he realized the vast gap between North and South." The motives for the killing of the two officers are still being investigated. The soldier is reportedly 17 years old.
The source added, "The North Korean regime stations hand-picked troops at border guard posts in [the truce village of] Panmunjom and the Kaesong Industrial Complex for fear of defections or ideological contamination, so this shows that discipline in the North Korean military is weakening."
Over the last 10 years, only five North Korean soldiers defected across the military demarcation line, and it is extremely rare for men to kill their superior officers.
An informed source pointed out that the defection comes amid North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's plan to seize control of the military, which has become a state within the state. Kim purged army chief Ri Yong-ho in July and took moneymaking businesses out of military control and handed them over to the Cabinet.
"This blow should be as damaging to Kim as the failed rocket launch" in April, the source added.
Meanwhile, the North's official KCNA news agency on Sunday said that Kim told intelligence officers, "We should mercilessly crush impure elements in society who dream of something different." It is unclear whether he was incensed by the defection or merely spouting standard rhetoric.
You have to wonder what will happen to the kid's family.
Posted by: Dom | October 09, 2012 at 11:16 AM