3 Feb. 2004

I was a former North Korean defector and I am now a South Korean citizen. Recently, I have been instrumental in obtaining documentary evidence about biological human experimentations in North Korea.

On 25 January 2004, I was staying at Ratchada City Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. At around 7 o'clock that evening I was walking to a nearby Korean restaurant, Kokiri (or Elephant Restaurant), by crossing the main street and into an L-shaped narrow ally.

The street was about 4 meters wide and, at that hour, was rather dark and deserted. I had walked alone for about 300 meters away from the hotel when I heard a horn behind me and turned around to find a small, dark gray Mercedes Benz following me at slow speed and blocking a taxi behind it (the taxi eventually passed the Mercedes and left).

The Mercedes then passed me and stopped about 5 meters in front of me by a house with a sign on the main gate that reads "Post Box 193"; the house on the other side has a sign that reads "7/152 & 7/153," and is some 20 meters from a small junction of Soi Rohit Suk Yaek 3.

Two young men then exited from either side of the rear of the car. They were in dark suits and muscular, had short hair and were about my height (176 cm) or smaller. Very soon they were behind me and on both sides trying to hold me by my arms, saying "You Are Kang Seong-kuk, right? You must come with us!"

Their Korean clearly had a North Korean accent, but sounded like someone trying to imitate a South Korean accent.

In horror, I instinctively struggled and pushed them back and ran forward as fast as I could. The driver of the car (also in dark suit and muscular, normal hair and about my height), however, quickly got out of the car and, as only someone highly trained in martial arts could do, gave me a strong and sharp flying side-kick.

I was slammed hard against the wall of a nearby house and sustained a cut on my left arm. Terrified, I regained my strength and began to run with all my strength when he tackled me.

I hit the ground very hard and sustained injuries to my face and right elbow (as shown by the attached pictures, taken a week after the injuries). I then saw two motorcyclists approaching from the opposite side and I shouted for help as loud as I could.

I ran into the main thoroughfare and disappeared into the darkness. I was so scared that I went into hiding until I met my partner in Bangkok on Monday, 2 February 2004. My partner went back to the site to inspect and take note of all the details herein, took pictures of my injuries, and took me to Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok for examination and treatment.

The medical certificate confirms that the 8th rib on my right side was broken, requiring 3 months' healing time. I have attached the medical certificate and pictures showing my wounds to support my report. X-rays can be made available upon request. And even though it was quite dark when the attack took place, I can portray their faces in a montage.

I am 176 cm tall, weigh 90 kilograms and exercise regularly -a fairly strong man myself - and I'm lucky to have survived the attack and attempted kidnapping.

But I am only one of 4,000 North Korean defectors, so why me? I have no idea how I could be so important as to be their target, and how they could discover my hotel. They could have murdered me in my hotel room.

I can only imagine that North Korea must be desperate to get back certain documents that they believe I possess.