脱北者、海泳ぎ韓国入り　何時間も見過ごした軍に非難殺到

【ソウルＡＦＰ＝時事】北朝鮮の男性が、海を泳いで韓国入りしたものの、韓国軍が監視カメラに何度も映っていたこの男性を見過ごし、発見まで何時間もかかっていたことが分かった。問題を受けて、現地メディアや野党議員らから非難が殺到している。（写真は資料写真）
　２０代とされるこの男性は、ダイビングスーツと足ひれを着用し、非武装地帯（ＤＭＺ）周辺海域を６時間かけて泳ぎ、韓国北東部の高城にたどり着いたとされる。
　それから３時間以上にわたり、監視カメラが男性の姿を８回捉え、警報が２回鳴ったにもかかわらず、国境警備隊は気付かなかったという。
　その後ようやく捜索が開始されたものの、警備隊が男性を発見したのは３時間後。男性は寝入っている様子で、着用していたマスクが木につり下げられていたという。男性は北朝鮮の民間人とみられ、当局によると亡命を希望している。
　韓国軍は、国境警備隊が「正規の手順に従わなかった」と認め、警備強化を約束。また徐旭（ソ・ウク）国防相も２３日、国境監視システムの「機能不全と老朽化」を認めた。
　保守系の朝鮮日報は２４日、今回の事態発生は軍が「崩壊寸前に近い」証拠だと指摘した。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/02/25-12:14）

A North Korean defector wore a diving suit and fins during a daring six-hour swim around one of the world's most fortified borders, a Seoul official said, and was caught only after apparently falling asleep.
Bungling South Korean forces did not spot the man's audacious exploit despite him appearing several times on CCTV after he landed and triggering alarms, drawing heavy criticism from media and opposition MPs.
Even after his presence was noticed, the man -- who used diving gear to make his way by sea around the Demilitarized Zone that divides the peninsula -- was not caught for another three hours.
The man, reportedly in his 20s, landed north of the town of Goseong on the east coast.
He presumably had swum for about six hours, wearing a padded jacket inside a diving suit and fins. His clothing appeared to have kept him warm and allowed him to stay afloat, an unnamed Joint Chiefs of Staff official was quoted as saying by Yonhap news agency on Tuesday.
Tidal currents worked in his favour, the official said, and he abandoned most of his equipment before making his way through a drainage channel under the barbed-wire fences that run along the coast.
Over more than three hours surveillance cameras caught him eight times, audible alarms sounding twice, but border guards did not notice.
Eventually a manhunt was launched, and troops found him three hours later, apparently asleep, his facemask hanging in a tree.
Officials say the defector, presumed to have been a civilian in the North, has expressed a desire to defect.
The military acknowledged troops had failed to abide by due procedures and vowed to strengthen border security.
And in a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday, Defence Minister Suh Wook acknowledged that surveillance systems in the area were malfunctioning and outdated.
Only a handful of Northern defectors ever directly cross the DMZ or swim past the maritime border -- although the last such publicly known incident was in November, when questions about security were also raised.
The vast majority of defectors instead first travel to neighbouring China, sometimes staying there for years before making their way on to the South via third countries.
More than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to the South over the decades but numbers plummeted to just 229 last year, after Pyongyang imposed a strict border closure to protect itself from the coronavirus that first emerged in neighbour and key ally China.
The incident was evidence the South Korean military was close to a near collapse, the conservative Chosun Ilbo newspaper said Wednesday.
Is this unit the only unit not doing its job properly? We think not, it added in an editorial.