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North Korean Soldier Shot by Own Troops as He Defects to the South
New York Times ^ | 11/12/2017 | By CHOE SANG-HUN

Posted on 11/13/2017 10:00:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean troops fired on a fellow soldier who was defecting to South Korea on Monday across the heavily armed border dividing the countries, South Korean officials said, amid heightened tensions over the North’s nuclear weapons program.

The soldier was shot but succeeded in reaching the South, its military said in a statement.

The North Korean soldier defected through Panmunjom, a village that straddles the border between the two Koreas. Alerted by gunshots, South Korean guards found the North Korean soldier about 55 yards south of the border line that bisects Panmunjom. He was taken to a hospital with gunshot wounds to an elbow and shoulder, South Korean officials said.

His defection took place while a joint naval exercise involving three American aircraft carriers was being conducted waters off South Korea’s east coast. It was the first time in a decade that the United States Navy had mobilized three carrier groups in the same drill in the western Pacific, and it represented the show of force that President Trump has said Americans “hope to God we never have to use” against North Korea.

North Korea has remained defiant, calling Mr. Trump a “dotard” again on Saturday and insisting that it will never give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The defector drove a vehicle toward the border line inside Panmunjom, and then left the vehicle, running south while he was fired upon by other North Korean soldiers, according to the American-led United Nations Command, which oversees the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War.

He took cover near a building on the southern side of the Joint Security Area in Panmunjom before South Korean and American troops came to his aid and took him to a hospital, the command said in a statement.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 201711; defection; nkdefector; northkorea
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1 posted on 11/13/2017 10:00:14 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Lets hope that soldier has no family left in North Korea.

Or they too will be shot.


2 posted on 11/13/2017 10:01:55 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: SeekAndFind

The Chinese Created Nicknames for Trump — It’s Driving Liberals Crazy
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3604101/posts


3 posted on 11/13/2017 10:04:59 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet (You cannot invade the mainland US. There'd be a rifle behind every blade of grass.)
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To: SeekAndFind

What the heck did Obama do to appease the evil NOKO regime, that it was so quiet all those years before Trump’s #MAGA initiative?

How many voting American ignorants would call for a return to Dennis Rodman diplomacy?


4 posted on 11/13/2017 10:05:57 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough
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To: LurkedLongEnough

The guards that did the shooting. Hope they’re identified. As I remember the East German border guards who did the same things faced justice when the wall came down. You don’t get that job unless you’re committed to the cause.


5 posted on 11/13/2017 10:09:41 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

BTW-I thought it was only the Sorks stationed in the DMZ.


6 posted on 11/13/2017 10:10:47 AM PST by DIRTYSECRET (urope. Why do they put up with this.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

RE: Lets hope that soldier has no family left in North Korea.

Or they too will be shot.

______________________

Well, if he has a family, they WILL BE shot regardless of whether his attempt to defect was successful or not.


7 posted on 11/13/2017 10:14:48 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: Responsibility2nd

He is fortunate indeed. I’m sure that ground must be extremely heavily mined. Unfortunately any family left behind will either disappear or spend their lives in a slave labor camp.


8 posted on 11/13/2017 10:17:14 AM PST by erlayman (yw)
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To: DIRTYSECRET

I strongly suspect guards who didn’t shoot at a defector would, themselves, be shot.


9 posted on 11/13/2017 10:30:12 AM PST by luvbach1 (I hope Trump runs roughshod over the inevitable obstuctionists, Dems, progs, libs, or RINOs!)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks SeekAndFind.
The soldier was shot but succeeded in reaching the South, its military said in a statement. The North Korean soldier defected through Panmunjom, a village that straddles the border between the two Koreas.

10 posted on 11/13/2017 10:31:05 AM PST by SunkenCiv (www.tapatalk.com/groups/godsgravesglyphs/, forum.darwincentral.org, www.gopbriefingroom.com)
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To: luvbach1

I’m so cynical at this point I’m wondering if this defector is a plant and they risked killing him just to get him to give us bad info. I’m probably wrong but you know how cynicism works.


11 posted on 11/13/2017 10:39:00 AM PST by Boomer (TisOK2BWhite)
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To: SunkenCiv

From the BBC article:

According to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the soldier made it across by passing through the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, which is the only portion of the Demilitarised Zone where both forces stand face-to-face.


12 posted on 11/13/2017 10:39:27 AM PST by erlayman (yw)
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To: SeekAndFind

Yet un, and his Presstitues will claim that the South did it.


13 posted on 11/13/2017 10:47:08 AM PST by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country)
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To: SeekAndFind

North Korea has remained defiant, calling Mr. Trump a “dotard”


And of course, much of the media and late-night hosts will agree with the Norks.


14 posted on 11/13/2017 10:48:18 AM PST by hanamizu
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To: SeekAndFind

I wonder if he would kneel to the symbols of freedom? Likely but not in protest. Best wishes for a complete recovery. Like others, I hope he has no family in the North.


15 posted on 11/13/2017 10:58:37 AM PST by Uncle Sam 911
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To: SeekAndFind

The most effective weapon that can be used against North Korea is spreading the knowledge of how the rest of the world lives. I’d also add that a comparison of Kim Jong Un to most any South Korean leader would also be effective.


16 posted on 11/13/2017 11:01:58 AM PST by JimSEA
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To: DIRTYSECRET

Sorks...What’s a Sork?


17 posted on 11/13/2017 11:06:22 AM PST by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: JimSEA

most effective weapon that can be used against North Korea is spreading the knowledge of how the rest of the world lives....I’m telling you from first hand experience, they would not believe it. Take a defector into a Px or just a grocery store in South Korea, and they think it is a Hollywood set to impress them.


18 posted on 11/13/2017 11:12:35 AM PST by Safetgiver (Islam makes barbarism look genteel.)
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To: Safetgiver

South Korean


19 posted on 11/13/2017 11:14:01 AM PST by stellaluna (rodney wilson)
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To: Safetgiver

They have some knowledge. Defectors have mentioned that Western movies get smuggled in from time to time. But they can’t do anything about it.

They cannot comprehend a Walmart but many North Koreans work outside the country and communicate with their families. Japan has a large NK population.


20 posted on 11/13/2017 11:17:09 AM PST by AppyPappy (Don't mistake your dorm political discussions with the desires of the nation)
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