3 N. Koreans killed trying to escape: human rights group

3 N. Koreans killed trying to escape: human rights group. January. 03, 2012 04:30. shcho@donga.com.

Three North Koreans who attempted to cross the border were shot to death over the weekend, a North Korean human rights group said Monday.

Do Hee-yoon, head of the Citizens’ Coalition for the Human Rights of Abductees and North Korean Refugees in South Korea, said, “Three North Korean men crossing the Yalu River to China were shot dead by North Korean border guards at 5 p.m. Saturday,” adding he heard the news from a source in Changbai, China.

The killings occurred a day after North Korea`s new leader Kim Jong Un was appointed supreme commander of the armed forces Friday. Pyongyang has reportedly tightened border controls and increased surveillance over those trying to escape since Kim Jong Il’s death.

Saturday`s deaths were the first killings of border-crossing defectors under the Kim Jong Un government.

“The border guards shot three 40-something men crossing the frozen Yalu river when it got dark, and they took away the dead bodies,” Do said, adding, “People were waiting for the defectors on the Chinese side but there was nothing they could do.”

The upstream of the Yalu River in Hyesan of North Korea`s Ryanggang Province is a route preferred by defectors because of its narrow width.

The incident could serve as a harbinger of stricter border control in North Korea.

“It has become tougher to call North Koreans in the border region with a cellphone since the end of last year,” a source from the North said. “Pyongyang has increased jamming to disrupt cellphone use as part of its tighter control.”

Unlike the past that families have tried to escape North Korea together, the three men`s try to escape reflects the North`s stricter border control given that women and children are physically weaker than men.

A South Korean official said, “Nothing has been confirmed on the supposed killing of the North Korean defectors.”

The major Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun said Sunday that two North Korean soldiers were shot dead and four others were caught by Chinese police after the six tried to escape North Korea in early December last year, before Kim Jong Il’s death.