The South Korean military is delivering updates on the North Korean soldier who was wounded while defecting, via loudspeaker broadcasts to the North amid the rogue regime’s refusal to talk directly with the South. 

The FM Radio “Freedom Voice” system near the inter-Korean border has been broadcasting about the recovery of the 24-year-old soldier, identified only by his surname Oh, after he sustained gunshot wounds while crossing the border on Nov. 13, the South Korean military said Sunday.

After being shot by his former comrades at the heavily guarded Joint Security Area within the truce village of Panmunjom, Oh was taken to a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul, where he received two consecutive operations. He was admitted to the intensive care unit at first, but is now reportedly in a stable condition after regaining consciousness, officials at the hospital said Friday.

The loudspeaker messages, which have reportedly influenced North Korean soldiers to defect in the past, have been deemed “psychological warfare” by the South Korean military. A North Korean soldier who crossed the MDL in June 2016 reportedly said that it pushed him to make the decision.

Although Oh has yet to issue a similar statement, he has expressed familiarity with South Korean culture, including K-pop girl groups.

Sunday’s broadcasts mentioned severe malnutrition among Korean soldiers, based on Oh’s medical records here. He was suffering from pneumonia and Hepatitis B, and dozens of fully grown parasitic worms were found in his ruptured small intestine, some as long as 27 centimeters, during surgery.

Pyongyang has yet to issue a direct comment on the matter, but the North Korean army dug a trench and planted trees near the Demilitarized Zone in an apparent move to prevent its soldiers from following Oh’s actions.

“(T)he North Koreans have planted two trees and are digging a trench at the spot where their soldier crossed the MDL,” Marc Knapper, acting US ambassador to South Korea, tweeted Wednesday. The remark was accompanied by a photo of several North Korean men carrying out the work while North Korean soldiers surrounded them.

Oh drove a jeep at about 70 kph before the vehicle got stuck in a ditch north of the Military Demarcation Line, the de facto border between the two Koreas. He was forced to abandon the vehicle and make a 50-meter dash for freedom.

A South Korean lawmaker acknowledged the spot in the photo as an area linked to Oh’s defection.

“I’m certain that’s the same spot where the soldier defected,” Kim Young-woo, chairman of the National Assembly’s defense committee in Seoul, said Friday.

“North Koreans appear to be digging a trench in an attempt to prevent others soldiers from defecting to South Korea,” he said.

Kim also added that the North had replaced most of its troops dispatched at the JSA, likely due to their failure at preventing Oh’s defection.

“It was obviously part of punishment for failing their mission to deter the North Korean soldier’s escape. North Korea has always punished those responsible for similar failures,” he added.

The United Nations Command said that the North Korean soldiers who fired gunshots at their former compatriot clearly violated the 1953 armistice agreement.

The agreement that halted the 1950-1953 Korean War stipulates that any person -- military or civilian -- is prohibited from crossing the Military Demarcation Line unless specifically authorized to do so by the Military Armistice Commission.

In line with recent events, a senior US diplomat referred to Oh’s defection to the South as an event that showcases North Korea’s human rights abuses, in a weekend op-ed published in the New York Times.

“This defector’s plight is a window onto North Korean life,” Brian Hook, director of policy planning and senior policy adviser at the State Department wrote. Hook lambasted the current North Korean regime for spending money on its weapons program, monuments honoring its leader Kim Jong-un and his family, and bribes for elites in Pyongyang, while its soldiers suffer from malnourishment.

A “vast majority” of North Korean citizens are subject to even worse treatment, Hook said. He also criticized the Chinese government for repatriating North Korean defectors found within its borders, and called on China and Russia to halt its “slave labor” made up of North Korean workers. Hiring North Koreans makes $230 million a year for the North Korean regime, he said.

Hook said that the US would not “sit idly” while the regime in Pyongyang “lawlessly pursues” North Korean defectors and urged other members of the international community to join in the movement to bring about the North’s denuclearization.

By Jung Min-kyung (mkjung@heraldcorp.com)