Daily NK obtained images from a local

source on Sunday of officials arresting a North Korean solider who escaped to

Dandong, China last week from Sinuiju in North Pyongan Province. The

photographs were taken during an arrest carried out by armed Chinese soldiers of

the one of two escapees who reportedly went AWOL last Tuesday in the early

morning hours. The captured border patrol guard from the North was said to be

armed at the time.

The image was taken at a small village

sitting opposite of North Korea’s Hwanggumpyong on Thursday and shows the

defector being apprehended and taken away by Chinese soldiers. The escapee was

said to have held a Chinese woman hostage on site but was eventually subdued.

“The solider dragged the hostage up to the

rooftop and tried to hold out to the very end,” the source in Dandong reported.

“But some 100 Chinese security officials and soldiers armed with guns conducted

a swift operation and the solider was soon overpowered,” he said, describing how the event unfolded.

He added, “As the Chinese soldiers were dragging him

off, they shouted at the residents who had come out to watch to go back inside,

but other than that there were no sounds of gunshots and the situation did not

further escalate.”

There is no news so far on the other

solider that escaped along with the apprehended guard. “As of now, there are no

armed Chinese soldiers in sight, and searches are no longer taking place at

train stations,” the source said. “This lends weight to the assumption that the other solider

has been captured as well.”

The recent incident of two lower-ranking

soldiers fleeing to the border city of Dandong in China has led many to believe

military discipline of the border guards has greatly diminished.

“Rigorous verification of loyalty to the

state is carried out when selecting border patrol guards, so to have

lower-ranking soldiers go AWOL with their weapons signals just how poor their

discipline has become,” an ex-military North Korean defector told Daily NK. “It

likely means rations were not being handed out properly or that they defected

due to conflicts with senior soldiers.”

The source, however, explained that many other factors may have contributed to their decision to escape. “The younger generation has been exposed a lot

to [illegal according to North Korean penal code] South Korean or foreign movies, so there is a strong desire to

leave the country. In a lot of cases, they end up traversing the border not to

defect, but rather from an inability to subdue the desire to cross over and set foot in Chinese territory,” he said, pointing out that the incident reveals further cracks in North Korea’s perennial attempts to promulgate its “superior system” to residents, who are increasingly unwilling to believe in it.