Defection of Five family Members of Chang Gil-Soo Aborted

Another five family members of Chang Gil-Soo (18-year-old), who could not come together with seven members of the family who entered South Korea in June last year, have tried to seek refugee in the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang, the provincial capital of Liaoning Province, China, at 2 P.M. (Korea time 3 P.M.) on May 8, but handed over to a security checkpoint nearby only after 15 minutes from the attempt.

According to an informed source of the region, two family members among the five Gil-Soo family members who tried to run into the Japanese Consulate General in Shenyang once set foot within the consulate building, but soon dragged out to transfer to a nearby Chinese security post.

The informed source also said other three family members of Gil-Soo who tried to enter into the consulate could not get into the boundary of the consulate due to the intervention of Chinese security guard.

The relatives of Gil-Soo who tried to enter the Japanese Consulate General in the day are a married couple Kim Kwang-Chul and Lee Sung-Hee, their daughter Kim Han-Mi, and Kim Sung-Kuk and Chung Kyung-Suk.

The source also relayed that, at almost the same time, two North Korean defectors, Song Yong-Bum (41-year-old) and Chung Bum-Chul (41-year-old) who are not related in blood with Gil-Soo, entered the US Consulate General located nearby the Japanese Consulate General in Hurping-Gu, Shenyang city. But the source added, `The current conditions of the two persons entered into the US consulate are not known right now.`

Seventeen members of Gil-Soo family have escaped North Korea in five occasions beginning from March 1997. Seven family members including Chang Gil-Soo have taken the route of freedom by taking over the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Beijing on June 26 last year, and three family members including Gil-Soo`s brother Han-Gil (21-year-old) entered Korea through a third country, and the whereabouts of the rest of the family has been unknown so far. It is known that Gilsu`s mother, Chung Sun-Mi (47-year-old), has been forcefully transferred to North Korea.

ljhzip@donga.com