VOA英语2010年-North Korean Defectors Ask to Help Fight The

（单词翻译）

Since the November 23 shelling of Yeonpyeong island, there has been rising anger in South Korea. Many South Koreans are angry at what they consider their government's mild response to the attack, which killed four people. Among those who want tougher action is a group of North Korean defectors.

North Korean defectors speak up

North Korean defectors who served in the communist state's military are asking to be allowed to take on their former comrades.

A group called the North Korea Peoples Liberation Front on Monday delivered a petition to the South Korean defense¹ ministry². They want permission to become a special force to help end the communist government in the North.

 
VOA - S. Herman
Members of the North Korea Peoples Liberation Front at a briefing in Seoul
Kim Seong-min is the organization's chairman. Kim says if they are given rifles, they will march to the front lines, such as Yeonpyeong island, which was hit by North Korean shells last month.

Park Chun-guk says he is a former commander of a North Korean special forces division.

Park says a thief knows what other thieves might do. Likewise, he says, the former North Korean soldiers understand the situation in the North, as well as the tactics and the mindset of its soldiers.

Park was among several former North Korean soldiers at a briefing in Seoul on Monday. They gave details about the unit that fired on Yeongpyeong last month. They also said many of their former colleagues were trained to infiltrate³ Seoul and other cities to neutralize⁴ critical targets, including air and sea ports, to wreck⁵ South Korea's economy in the event of hostilities⁶.

Defectors outlook

The defectors predict North Korea's provocations⁷ against the South will continue. That is because heir apparent Kim Jong Un needs to demonstrate credibility as a leader, much as his father, Kim Jong Il, did in the 1980's before succeeding his late father, Kim Il Sung.

 
VOA - S. Herman
Former North Korean soldiers, who have joined a resistance group, briefing reporters
More than 20,000 defectors from the North live in South Korea.

The two Koreas have remained technically⁸ at war since 1953 when three years of conflict ended with an armistice⁹, not a peace treaty.

Tension between the two has been high since the sinking of a South Korean naval¹⁰ ship in March. An international investigation¹¹ concluded that the Cheonan was hit by a North Korean torpedo¹², killing¹³ 46 sailors. Pyongyang denies any involvement.

The North, however, did acknowledge last month's shelling of Yeonpyeong. It says the attack was justified¹⁴ because a South Korean military exercise on the island fired shells into disputed waters off the west coast.

South Korea is conducting a second consecutive¹⁵ week of live-fire exercises. Officials have not confirmed whether any firing will take place in the disputed maritime¹⁶ region.

Pyongyang says such exercises, along with recent naval maneuvers¹⁷ the United States has conducted with South Korea and Japan, are bringing the Korean peninsula closer to war.