North Koreans baffled by mushing neighbors
By Jon Herskovitz/n
MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea (Reuters) - Neither war, armed troops or befuddled border guards could stop South Korean dog sled teams from going to North Korea and mushing on Sunday where none of them have mushed before.
About 80 dogs from the South made what is almost certainly the largest canine crossing of the heavily armed border for the race at the Mount Kumgang resort, which is run by an affiliate of the South's Hyundai Group.
With nary a snowflake on the course, about 35 dog teams pulled sleds on wheels along a coastal road with the scenic Diamond Mountain range as a backdrop.
No North Koreans competed. The few who saw the race were soldiers standing at wind-swept guard posts.
In the impoverished north, dogs are known as man's best friend for very different reasons than the West.
"The North Koreans think dogs are for eating, and not for sport," said Yunis Cho, one of the South Korean dog sled racers.
The Kumgang resort is supposed to be a place that brings people closer together from the two countries that technically have not ended their 1950-1953 war.
But the dog race showed just how far they have drifted apart.
North Korea is one of the world's most isolated and poorest states where dog sledding is unknown, and expensive hobbies like it are unthinkable.
In the affluent South, some people pay sums greater than the average annual wage of a North Korean worker for a pedigree pooch.
As South Koreans grow richer and worldlier, sports like dog sledding are taking off, with many mushers saying they were first exposed to it through events like Alaska's famed Iditarod race.
CONFUSION
It took years of planning to hold a race in North Korea, but that did not prevent confusion at the border where the North's quarantine inspectors tried to figure out what to make of the canine cargo.
"They don't know about foreign dogs, especially huskies, malamutes or borzoi. They have only seen Korean breeds," said Kim Tae-ryong, president of the South's Korea Federation of Sleddog Sports.
The dogs spent the night before the race in cages outside one of the South Korean-run hotels in Kumgang howling at the moon and barking at tour buses.
Kim said the race in the North would help bring attention to the sport in the South while also introducing it to their Korean brothers across the border.
Lee Ki-woon, who is one of the few people in South Korea who breeds the North Korean dog called "poongsan", took two of the snow white canines to Kumgang.
"It probably feels like a homecoming for them," Lee said, but when one of the dogs broke out of his collar and ran freely before his owner rounded him up, it looked more like a defection.
North Korean workers who are being watched by the country's spy apparatus to make sure they do not become too cordial with South Koreans, mostly kept their lips sealed about the competition.
Apart from the typical, "No comment," one brave North Korean went as far as to say: "I like dogs."
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
North Koreans baffled by mushing neighbors
| International
| Reuters
'22 N. Koreans Executed for Defection Attempt’
By Jung Sung-ki/n'22 N. Koreans Executed for Defection Attempt’(The Korea Times)
Staff Reporter
Twenty-two North Koreans, sent back to the North by South Korean authorities earlier this month after their fishing boats drifted into South Korean waters, were reported to have been executed by a firing squad.
The North Koreans were shot dead last week by North Korean military authorities of South Hwanghae Province, which believed they had attempted to defect to the South, Yonhap News Agency reported Sunday, quoting an unidentified government source.
``The rumor (of the execution) has been spreading out among locals. Local people have been shocked that all of the 22 were executed by a firing squad without distinction of age or sex,'' the source said.
The North Koreans of 15 families were spotted on the western waters off South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island Feb. 8 and interrogated by an investigation team of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and Navy, NIS officials said.
They were repatriated later in the day because they showed no intention for defection, they said.
The 22 North Koreans included eight men, 14 women and three students.
Officials of the NIS and the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said they had no intelligence of the North Koreans' execution.
``We have no intelligence of the execution. But there is a possibility that the North Koreans might have been punished somehow, as they were found to be fishing without approval from the authorities,'' an Defense Ministry official said, asking not to be named.
North Korean fishermen often stray into southern waters because of bad weather or engine problems.
22人の北朝鮮人（韓国の海に追い込まれる彼らの釣り舟の後で今月始め韓国当局によって北部に送り返される）は、銃殺執行隊によって処刑されたことが報告されました。
北朝鮮人は南部Hwanghae省の北朝鮮軍当局によって先週射殺された。そして、それは彼らが南側に離脱しようとしたと思っていたと、連合通信が日曜日に報告しました。そして、正体不明の政府筋を引合いに出しました。
「噂（処刑の）は、地方住民の間で散開していました。22の全てが年齢や性別の優秀性なしで銃殺執行隊によって実行された地元の人々は、ショックを受けました」と、源が言いました。
15の家族の北朝鮮人は2月8日に韓国のYeonpyeong島沖の西海で見つかって、国家情報院（NIS）と海軍の調査チームによって質問されたと、旧ソ連の新独立国家当局が言いました。
彼らが離反のために意図を示さなかったので、彼らは日の後刻に本国へ送還されたと、彼らが言いました。
22人の北朝鮮人は、8人の男性、14人の女性と3人の学生を含めました。
NISの当局と国立Defense（MND）省は、彼らには北朝鮮人の処刑の知性がないと言いました。
「我々には、処刑の知性がありません。しかし、彼らが当局から承認なしで釣りをしているとわかったので、北朝鮮人がどうにか、罰されたかもしれないという可能性があります」と、国防省官僚が言いました。そして、名をつけられたくないと頼みました。
北朝鮮の漁師は、悪天候またはエンジン問題のため、南海にしばしば道に迷います。
NKoreans found drifting at sea executed: report
SEOUL (AFP) ― There are fears 22 North Koreans may have been executed after they were returned home having been picked up in boats in waters belonging to South Korea, a news report said on Sunday./nAFP: NKoreans found drifting at sea executed: report
South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted an unidentified intelligence source in Seoul saying that there has been a widespread rumour in the area where the 22 came from that all were shot dead early last week by the hard-line communist state.
They had been sent back home by South Korea on February 8 after being found drifting in two rubber dinghies in the South's waters nine days earlier, the report said.
"Residents in South Hwanghae are in shock as all the 22 people, instead of being sent to prison, were shot to death," a source from South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) was quoted as telling Yonhap.
"They believe the 22 people were caught trying to defect to the South," the source said, adding the NIS was trying to confirm the rumour they had been executed.
The 22 -- eight men and 14 women -- were picked up by South Korean authorities in the South's waters, although the group said they had not been attempting to seek asylum and were fishing.
"In the course of interrogation, the 22 said they were swept by currents and they were not defectors. They strongly demanded they must be sent back home," an NIS spokesman said.
The NIS said in a statement it believed the group was not seeking asylum, and instead were at sea to collect clams and oysters -- though without the necessary authorisation of the North Korean maritime agency.
They were apparently hoping to take advantage of lax security during the Lunar New Year break to fish, but instead drifted into the South's waters, the report said.
They were repatriated via an overland route the following day, the NIS added, although what happened to them afterwards remains uncertain.
South Korean intelligence have acknowledged they may have been executed because of their unauthorised fishing, Yonhap said.
However the unusually large number of people on the boats and the fact there were more women than men has led to suspicions they were trying to escape to the South, the report said.