[Reporter's Column] Timing matters

For foreign affairs and unification correspondents in Seoul, the defection of North Koreans has long been one of the trickiest subjects to write on.

Apart from the murkiness associated with the escapees’ often months-long, arduous journey away from their oppressive homeland, reporters are not allowed to meet with or speak to those fresh off the boat -- at least during the joint questioning that opens upon their arrival and an ensuing three-month mandatory education period at the Hanawon resettlement center.

Yet perhaps the greatest obstacle is the absence of official channels with which to verify information gained from sources. The South Korean government has for years maintained the policy of not discussing defector issues with the media on safety concerns for the left-behind family members and out of courtesy for the neighboring countries that assist with -- or turn a blind eye to -- their sometimes illicit border-crossing. These have also formed the rationale behind the government’s requests, and the press corps’ consent, to hold back stories of some inbound refugees until they touch down without a snag.

To the reporters’ surprise, however, the Unification Ministry volunteered to break the news late last Friday of the arrival here of 13 employees at a North Korean restaurant overseas. It declined to mention the diner’s location (Ningbo, China) and their itinerary (via Thailand and Laos), citing diplomatic sensitivity, but such details were still unveiled on front pages the next morning.

The logic: It was so rare for a large number of people from the same workplace to have fled, and sooner than later someone would have gotten the scoop anyway.

The unscheduled announcement led to a torrent of news reports on not only the 13 people’s backgrounds and the restaurant’s recent conditions, but also the arrival of other high-flying North Koreans over the past year.

Then the government turned even more media-friendly on Monday, with both the unification and defense ministries offering a rare confirmation on the defection of a ranking North Korean military intelligence officer last year, as well as diplomats working in Africa and Asia.

But the reconnaissance agent and diplomats were in fact part of an array of defectors who have already been in the news, only they were not officially verified.

Now Cheong Wa Dae faces accusations that it has engineered the sudden about-face in the government’s longstanding approach to the defector issues, seeking to rally Park Geun-hye’s traditional conservative supporter base and sidetrack voters’ attention away from the much-ensured factional backstabbing within the ruling Saenuri Party by rekindling ideological tensions ahead of Wednesday’s general election.

The unveiling of the joint defection coincided with the onset of a two-day early voting, followed by the foreign and unification ministries’ spontaneous Sunday press briefings on the effects of newly imposed sanctions against North Korea.

A Unification Ministry official expressed skepticism over the claim on the administration’s ideological push, quipping, “Does such a kind of campaign still work these days?”

As officials have repeatedly underscored, the recent exodus of high-profile North Koreans could mark signs of a fledgling change in the mindset of the isolated people, and the sanctions may be starting to hold sway.

In light of the perceived circumstantial correlation, however, the significance and implications are already fading. Meanwhile, the government is losing ground in convincing not only the public but the neighboring countries, which have so far silently provided critical cooperation in bringing the deserters here from a humanitarian standpoint, despite their old diplomatic ties with Pyongyang. North Korean authorities, for their part, will likely step up border controls, especially since at least three or more other North Koreans who had worked together with the 13 are reportedly striving to reach the South.

Whether “such kind of campaign” still works or not will probably remain unanswered long after the poll closes. Greater repercussions stemming from the tactical shift may be yet to come. As in every critical political decision, timing matters.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)