Number of North Korean Defectors Surges Past 20K

Mistakes Asiana Air plane for N. Korean military plane, misses completely

(NEWSER) - In a sign of how twitchy things are getting on the Korean border, South Korean troops yesterday fired at a commercial plane carrying 119 people, mistaking the Asiana Airlines jet for one belonging to North Korea's military. Fortunately, they missed entirely and the plane landed without incident. "The Marine Corps did fire, but they misidentified the plane," said an Asiana spokesman. "The plane did not suffer any damage and it landed safely." More»

Plane went down in Chinese corn field

(NEWSER) - This much seems clear: A North Korean fighter jet crashed into a corn field in China. (See the Wall Street Journal for photos.) Beyond that lies a ton of speculation, but the wires generally agree on this storyline: It was a lone pilot who tried to defect from Kim Jong Il's land of paradise, and he was probably trying to fly over China to Russia (which has no repatriation policy with the North). He was killed in the crash, though there are squishy reports of a second pilot who bailed, notes the BBC . More»

With shrinking population, S. Korea manufactures soldiers

(NEWSER) - Two killer robots are patrolling the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea—and they belong to the South. The robots, produced at a cost of $330,000, are equipped with surveillance, tracking, firing, and voice recognition capabilities. South Korea is using them as a test run for a larger-scale combat robot program it is currently developing to complement human soldiers in battle, the Daily Telegraph reports. More»

N. Korea fires artillery at South for second day

(NEWSER) - North Korea is holding an American citizen who officials say tried to illegally enter the country across its border with China this week. Officials didn't provide the man's name or any other details, and State Department officials declined to comment. This is the second American detained by North Korea in the last month, AP notes. More»

(NEWSER) - They arrive undernourished and barely able to read. They marvel at credit cards, can’t stomach pizza, and when the lights dim in movie theaters, they panic, fearing kidnappers will strike. Welcome to the world of the North Korean defector in South Korea, where an ever-growing wave of refugees is sneaking over the border and struggling to keep up with capitalist life. More»