NK Trojan horse

A new funny “knock knock” joke goes like this. “Knock, knock!” No answer. If you try to listen hard enough, you can hear the “Zzzz” of soldiers sleeping inside.

By now, you will understand who this joke is about and will probably no longer be amused.

If anyone remains amused at all, it will be North Korean leader Kim Jung-un.

Watching the whole episode unfold from the high perch of his posh mansion in Pyongyang, the chubby lookalike of his grandfather, Kim Il-sung, may be laughing heartily.

Before going further, I want to declare that the best medicine for the recent frontline security breach should be the toughest love that can be administered to our military but how it is administered should be worth a rational second thought. I will explain why.

First, here is a recap.

A recent series of revelations related to the defection of a North Korean soldier on Oct. 2 causes us to seriously doubt whether we can trust our Armed Forces.

According to the outcome of a special probe by the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), a North Korean solider crossed the three-layer barbed-wire fence without being detected over what is called “the world’s most heavily fortified border” and defected to the South.

There are at least two problems regarding this incident. This one is separate from a case on Oct. 7 when military authorities said a young North Korean solider killed his two superior officers and defected on the road that leads to the Gaeseong Industrial Complex, the inter-Korean joint endeavor.

Regarding the boneheaded mishandling of the Oct. 2 defection, the northern solider not only breached the fences but also was able to approach a garrison unit without being challenged.

He knocked but there was no response. He went to a guard post to declare his intention to defect.

The second problem was an obvious cover-up attempt that might have involved top military brass.

Investigators found that Defense Minister Kim Kwan-jin and JCS Chairman Gen. Jung Seung-jo were briefed about the situation on Oct. 3 but Gen. Jung told lawmakers that the defector was detected on a surveillance camera. The camera was later found to be defective.

The probe’s finding that the defector had not been deterred at any point on his way leads us to question whether Gen. Jung lied. The military argues that Jung made his comment on the basis of an official report coming up through a chain of command, adding that he had received a verbal, unconfirmed intelligence briefing about the knock-knock defection.

The revelation triggered at least one defector to speak up.

In an interview with some media outlets, a North Korean defector who four years ago crossed the DMZ, the demilitarized zone, the four-kilometer buffer zone that separates South from North, claimed that he had to travel hours from one South Korean frontline military installation to another before stumbling upon a noncommissioned officer, who politely asked what he could do for him.

The defector said that he called for help in front of guard posts but received no response, even if he was sure that there were soldiers on duty. I don’t want to believe that the soldiers were too scared. I wish it were a scene from a horrible war movie.

As a result, Defense Minister Kim Monday offered a public apology, sending five flag officers and nine other officers in front of a disciplinary committee. Ministry officials said that the incident potentially held the biggest scope for punishment in a single case of frontline operational failure.

Now, let’s put ourselves in the position of our enemy in the North, as would any commander in battle, and see what we can see.

Simply put, one North Korean defector has done what the communist country’s team of underwater commandos failed to achieve by torpedoing ROK Navy frigate Cheonan or one of its artillery unit came short of accomplishing by shelling Yeongpyeong Island.

In both cases of North Korean provocation that took place in the West Sea, our military was not as extensive as this time in terms of its own disciplinary actions, considering it might further hurt troop morale.

On both occasions, our country by and large was united in our resentment toward the North.

This time, the North is off the public’s radar and our top military brass is in the crosshairs of their anger. I wonder, “Are they worth our money?” and I think most Koreans feel the same.

But the dilemma is that if we were to sack Minister Kim and JCS chief Gen. Jung, we would run the risk of looking as if we had played into North Korea’s hands.

If we deal with them lightly, we send a wrong message to the nation as well as the military.

We would lose trust in our military as the protector and guarantor of our security and safety, while the military would be left to its own devices without improving its readiness.

Judging by the weight of this conundrum, I suspect that this knock-knock defection may be the strongest case of the “northern wind” that has taken place ahead of the Dec. 19 presidential election. The term refers to attempts by North Korea to interfere with and change the course of important affairs in the South. Previously, Pyongyang often resorted to armed provocations and sometimes was more sophisticated in its approaches with the aim of preventing anti-Pyongyang candidates or parties from winning the elections.

If the Oct. 2 defection were a Trojan horse that the North sent as part of its northern wind scheme, it has surely created a fuss, but it remains to be seen whether it will change the course of the election in a way it considers as beneficial to its interests.

Back to the bigger question how to deal with this mess, I am against an immediate, sweeping purge but I believe that it reinforces my belief for a fundamental change in the status quo, starting with inaugurating a civilian defense minister. <The Korea Times/Oh Young-jin Managing Editor>

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