Posted on 02/11/2004 6:28:25 PM PST by mylife
Chinese agents seize N Korean defector By Robin Gedye (Filed: 12/02/2004)
China has hunted down and arrested a North Korean defector who revealed the first documentary evidence of Pyongyang's chemical and biological experiments on political prisoners, said his supporters yesterday.
Kang Byong-sop, 59, was seized on the Chinese-Laotian border with his wife and youngest son, aged 25, last month after escaping from North Korea with proof that the Stalinist regime is killing political prisoners by experimenting on them with biological and chemical weapons.
Seong-kuk: injured during a kidnap attempt Mr Kang's eldest son, Seong-kuk, who defected several years ago and acted as an intermediary in smuggling the evidence out of China shortly before his father's arrest, escaped a kidnap attempt by suspected North Korean agents in Bangkok two weeks ago.
Refugee agencies believe that North Korea, knowing Mr Kang was on the run with incriminating documents, launched a frantic hunt for him with China's help.
"The family were carrying between $6,000 [£3,500] and $8,000 to help in their escape when they were arrested at the border with Laos," said Kim Sang-hun, a South Korean human rights activist who organised the family's escape. "For about 10 days we could not discover what had happened to them and were afraid they had been killed and robbed by border guards.
"Then we heard they had been jailed in the border town of Jing Hong. That was three weeks ago. We have no idea where they are now or even if they are still alive."
Kim Sang-hun: organised the escape of Kang Byong-sop Mr Kim said that on the day the family was captured the head of the regional border guards came from his headquarters in Jing Hong, 100 miles away, to the tiny frontier post where they were caught.
Mr Kim believes it was no coincidence that the senior border official was present. He is convinced that the Chinese authorities, alerted to the potential value of their prey, had been offered "a considerable financial inducement" to find Mr Kang.
"Mr Kang is easy to identify," Mr Kim said. "He has to walk bent almost double after interrogation in North Korea. On one occasion his back was broken and on another he was dropped on his head, snapping his neck."
But the secret documents had already been smuggled out by Seong-kuk after Mr Kang, an engineer, took them from the February 8 Vinalon Factory, one of North Korea's largest chemical plants.
The documents, seen by The Telegraph, are headed "Letter of Transfer", marked "Top Secret" and dated February 2002 with an official stamp and signature.
Bearing the name of a victim, his date and place of his birth, the documents read: "The above person is transferred from Camp 22 for the purpose of human experimentation with liquid gas for chemical weapons."
The North Korean authorities routinely round up and imprison the relations and even friends of anyone they consider a political threat, and two weeks ago Seong-kuk stepped into a narrow alley behind the Ratchada Hotel, Bangkok, on his way to a dinner appointment, when two men with North Korean accents grabbed his arms.
"You are Kang Seong-kuk? You must come with us," they snapped. After a violent struggle he escaped with injuries to his face and arm.
Mr Kim, 70, who defected from North Korea at 14 and now lives in South Korea, says many of the refugees he has debriefed have spoken of mass experimentation on political prisoners as if it were common knowledge.
He found it almost impossible to believe until he was handed the Vinalon factory documents.
It would be extremely difficult to sneak across the demilitarized zone separating North and South Korea.
Now if we only had that setup on our border with Mexico. - tom
High barbwire fences, dogs, searchlights, random patrols, *landmines*, and other assorted nastiness along every inch of the North/South Korea border makes that seemingly shorter trip to freedom much, much more dangerous than the longer trek to Laos, friend.
No. They'll focus on George Bush and America. They reserve their sense of moral outrage for the good, not the evil.
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