North Korean defector a ‘nice guy’ who has nightmares about being returned to the North, says surgeon

North Korea’s latest defector, a young soldier known only by his family name Oh, is a quiet, pleasant man who has nightmares about being returned to the North, his surgeon said on Thursday.

“He’s a pretty nice guy,” said lead surgeon Lee Cook-jong, who has been operating and caring for the 24-year-old. Oh has become a focus of worldwide attention after he was badly wounded by fellow North Korean soldiers as he scrambled across the border in the demilitarised zone that separates North and South on November 13.

Video of Oh’s escape released on Wednesday showed him stumbling over the border and being dragged unconscious through the undergrowth by South Korean troops.

Surgeon Lee has been almost the only person to speak with Oh since he arrived at the hospital, he said in an interview at his office at Ajou University Hospital, just a few floors away from where the defector lies guarded by South Korean special forces and intelligence officers.

The surgeon, who has hung a South Korean flag in the soldier’s room, said he is avoiding subjects that may disturb his patient. Oh is eating his first “clear liquid” food such as broths, and can smile, talk, and use his hands, Lee said. But when his patient woke on Sunday he cried out in pain, and Lee said he is still anxious about the South Korean guards.

Lee said Oh told him that he had joined the North Korean army when he was 17, right after secondary school graduation. The soldier’s hair is styled “like a jarhead, like a US Marine, so I actually joked ‘why don’t you join the South Korean Marines?’ He smiled and said that he would never ever go back to the military system again.”