Free Republic

20 N.Korean Officials Defected to S.Korea This Year Twenty North Korean officials have defected to South Korea so far this year, the National Intelligence Service told a National Assembly audit Tuesday. They were mostly diplomats but also include a high-ranking officer from the powerful Army politburo. NIS chief Lee Byung-ho told lawmakers the number of North Korean officials defecting from overseas is steadily increasing. Lee added that all 20 who defected this year now live in South Korea. Although they rank lower than the late Hwang Jang-yop, a senior Workers Party secretary, some are from the elite class, Lee said....

Contrary to some media speculation, top military leadership knew as early as late 2009 that Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl had deserted. During an open-book question and answer session in Afghanistan, members of Bergdahl’s platoon directly asked then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Admiral Mike Mullen whether he was aware of Bergdahl’s desertion. Mullen “told me that he knew of the circumstances surrounding his walking off,” former Sgt. Matt Vierkant, one of the platoon members, told Fox News, and “that they were developing leads and following leads, trying to do everything they could to get him back.” Evan Buetow and Cody Full,...

A 2009 NCIS investigation into Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl’s activities while in Afghanistan reveal that there is clear evidence Bergdahl was “going over to the other side with a deliberate plan,” Lt. Col. Anthony Shaffer said on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" Monday night. Shaffer, a former military intelligence officer and Fox News contributor, said two senior sources told him that the Naval Criminal Investigative Service investigation included a forensic review of his computer, which show Bergdahl’s apparent intent to travel to Uzbekistan. “He was going to go off to Uzbekistan,” Shaffer told Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly. “He had made contact...

According to preliminary information, a Russian tank unit deployed in Ukraine has defected and joined the Ukrainian army, ‘Kyivshchyna’ 11th battalion announced on its website in Facebook Sept. 1. Anti-Putin feelings in Russia are on the increase, with one-man protesters carrying slogans appearing on Moscow streets. Under the Russian law, more than one protesters are qualified as organized anti-government activities subject to criminal investigations.

More than 400 Ukrainian soldiers have crossed the border into Russia and deserted the Kiev government, according to an Interfax news agency report quoting a border security official. Vasily Malayev, head of the Federal Security Service's border patrol in the Rostov region, told Interfax that 438 Ukrainian soldiers had reached Russia on Monday. [...] Late on Monday, Malayev said 180 of the troops had since been returned to Ukraine after consultations with Kiev while the rest were deciding what to do next. Ukraine confirmed the crossing, which happened on Monday, but said the soldiers were forced into Russian territory by...

Nine members of the Eritrea national football team and the coach of the squad have disappeared in Kenya following a regional football tournament. After Eritrea were eliminated from the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup, which was won by Kenya last weekend, the 12 men disappeared. Cecafa general secretary Nicholas Musonye told Reuters: "The players and the coach have absconded." It is not the first time players from the national squad have defected abroad. Last December, 17 players and the team doctor claimed asylum in Uganda, 18 months after 13 players from an Eritrean club side sought refuge in Tanzania.

/begin my excerpts "Jang Sung-taek's Associate Escaped, Carrying Key Documents on Nuke" 2013.12.10 20:50 A close associate of now-purged Jang Sung-taek escaped to China with key documents on N. Korea's nuclear program recently. It is a possibility that the impending purge of Jang contributed to his defection. SBS(S. Korean TV station,) quoting a source on N. Korea, reported that, in the early part of October, when momentum is building up to purge Jang Sung-taek, his close associate escaped to China, who is a former general at Ruling Party's Administration Department which Jang headed. The source said, "He came out with...

Democratic leaders have given the White House space to work out the problems with the Obamacare website, but if it isn’t right this time around, vulnerable Senate Democrats could distance themselves even more from the law they voted to pass. … Earlier this month, 39 Democrats joined ranks with Republicans to vote for a bill allowing people to remain on their current health insurance plans, and are signaling they’re ready to make a stronger push about the bill should the site still not work correctly after Sunday’s deadline comes and goes, said The National Journal. But with Obama’s poll numbers...

Al-Arabiya is reporting that Syrian President Bashar Assad's mother has defected. She joined her daughter Bushra in the UAE, who had left the country last fall. President Bashar al-Assad's mother Anisa Makhlouf and other members of his inner circle have fled to the United Arab Emirates as the regime of the embattled president appeared to disintegrate, recent reports confirmed. Anisa has joined her daughter, Bushra, who had previously fled to Dubai, the London-based Asharq al-Awsat quoted Robert Ford, U.S. ambassador to Syria until the break of the relations between the two countries. Anisa, the widow of late president Hafez...

10-11-2012 11:18 Top NK military official appears to be demoted A top North Korean military official appeared in public wearing the insignia of the four-star rank, spurring speculation that he might have been demoted from the vice marshal rank awarded to him only a few months ago. The North's main Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Wednesday carried a front-page photo showing Hyon Yong-chol, chief of the North Korean military's general staff, wearing a uniform bearing four stars on the epaulets while saluting next to leader Kim Jong-un. They were on a visit to Pyongyang's Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, the mausoleum...

Hassan Gol Khanban is thought to have planned his defection in advance of his trip to the United States, taking steps to have his family flee Iran in the hope that they too can gain asylum, his lawyer, Paul O'Dwyer, said. Mr Khanban, who is believed to have worked for the Iranian state broadcaster IRIB for several years, had accompanied Mr Ahmadinejad to New York to attend last week's session of the UN General Assembly. Mr O'Dwyer said that his client's wife and two children had left Iran while he was in New York and that efforts were being made...

The 24-year-old daughter of Cuban Vice President Marino Murillo, sometimes mentioned as a possible successor to ruler Raúl Castro, defected earlier this month and is now living in Tampa, knowledgeable sources said. Glenda Murillo Diaz crossed the Mexico border at Laredo, Texas, around Aug. 16, the sources told El Nuevo Herald, meaning she was paroled under the wet-foot, dry-foot policy, which allows Cubans who set foot on U.S. land to stay.

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syria's prime minister defected to the opposition seeking to overthrow what fleeing premier Riyad Hijab called the "terrorist regime" of President Bashar al-Assad, marking one of the highest profile desertions from Damascus. Hijab, who like much of the opposition comes from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, is not part of Assad's inner circle, but as the most senior serving civilian official to defect his departure dealt a heavy symbolic blow to an establishment rooted in the president's minority Alawite sect.

Tzachi Hanegbi of Kadima, a former minister, announced several days ago that he plans to return to his first political home – Likud. In an event Thursday night, he started to gather disgruntled Kadima members in an attempt to bring as many party members as possible back to Likud with him. Hanegbi addressed those at the event and explained his disapproval for current Kadima head MK Shaul Mofaz, and his disagreement with Mofaz’s decision to leave the coalition. Mofaz’s hasty exit from the coalition just weeks after joining upset many of his own MKs. He made the decision to leave...

After the Democratic Party's failure to recall Wisconsin's Gov. Scott Walker, their consolation prize was control of the state senate, by one vote. Senate control would only have lasted until November, when yet another election (this time a regularly scheduled one) would have thrown 16 seats into question again, but it was a meager something for the millions liberals spent, at least.As of last night, meager something may be nothing. Moderate Democratic Senator Tim Cullen declared Tuesday he will no longer caucus with Democrats, possibly taking the Senate back to dead even again, even as Democrats are moving into new...

China says crusading police chief spent day in US consulate amid asylum bid speculation By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, February 10, 6:36 PM BEIJING — Beijing says a celebrity police chief linked to one of the country’s rising political stars spent a day in a U.S. consulate in southwestern China amid speculation that he sought political asylum. The U.S. State Department confirmed that former Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun visited the consulate in the city of Chengdu, but gave no details. The Foreign Ministry spokesman’s office said that Wang entered the consulate on Monday and “remained there for one day.”...

Mystery deepens over high-ranking Chinese deputy mayor and his supposed defection to the U.S. Reuters Feb 9, 2012 – 9:40 AM ET | Last Updated: Feb 9, 2012 9:42 AM ET By Michael Martina The United States said Thursday a former Chinese police chief rumoured to have tried to defect had visited one of its consulates, fuelling a political intrigue analysts say may signal a power struggle in China. The mysterious consular incident in southwest China has cast an unwelcome spotlight on Bo Xilai, a former commerce minister jostling to join the Communist Party’s inner circle, but muted reaction in...

Feb 8, 2012 9:02am China’s ‘Hero Cop’ Vanishes Into ‘Vacation-Style Therapy’ China’s most famous cop has been placed on leave for “vacation-style therapy” after a rumored U.S. asylum bid that had an American consulate surrounded by Chinese police. This morning in China began with chatter that an incident had unfolded overnight outside the U.S. consulate in the western Chinese city of Chengdu. Pictures began to spread across Sina Weibo, China’s answer to Twitter, showing Chengdu police blocking off the streets around the consulate. A name, Wang LiJun, began to trend alongside those pictures on the micro-blogging site. By mid-morning, searches...

N.Korean Elite Sniper Defects An ex-member of an elite North Korean special warfare unit defected across the West Sea on Oct. 30. He crossed the sea on a raft made of tires, it emerged on Tuesday. Under questioning by the National Intelligence Service, the military and police, the man, who is in his early 30s, said he had been discharged from the marine sniper brigade five years ago and then worked as a civilian member in a military unit. He set out in the raft from South Hwanghae Province in the morning of Oct. 29 and rowed while riding the...

By Joohee Cho Nov 8, 2011 9:06am Even Dogs Are Defecting From North Korea More than 21,000 North Koreans have defected to the affluent South Korea since the Korean War. But last week was the first ever of a canine defection. One or two dogs were among 21 boat people seeking refuge, according to Yonhap News Agency citing multiple sources. Government ministries and military refused ABC News’ request to confirm the exact number of dogs, saying the group was “under interrogation.” Many are puzzled why the defectors would have brought along the dogs at the risk of being caught in...