A South Korean citizen has crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea in a rare defection.
After detecting a person around 9:20 pm (1220 GMT) on Saturday on the eastern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas, a search operation was carried out, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The person was able to evade detection for several hours despite a search operation by South Korean troops.
As North Korea has implemented a shoot-on-sight policy during the pandemic, the fate of that defector, who had lived in South Korea, is not known yet. Military chiefs in Seoul said they did not know if the person was still alive, but had sent a message to the North asking for them to be protected.
In September 2020 North Korean troops shot and burned a South Korean fisheries official who went missing at sea. Although the incident sparked uproar, North Korea blamed it on the anti-virus rule and apologized.
The two Koreas are split along the world’s most heavily armed border, called the Demilitarized Zone. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the 248-kilometer (155-mile) -long, 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide DMZ, which is also guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps, and combat troops on both sides.
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the late 1990s to avoid poverty or political oppression, but a vast majority of them have come via China and Southeast Asian countries. Some South Koreans have tried to defect to the impoverished, authoritarian North, but it is rare.
After detecting a person around 9:20 pm (1220 GMT) on Saturday on the eastern side of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), which separates the two Koreas, a search operation was carried out, said the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The person was able to evade detection for several hours despite a search operation by South Korean troops.
As North Korea has implemented a shoot-on-sight policy during the pandemic, the fate of that defector, who had lived in South Korea, is not known yet. Military chiefs in Seoul said they did not know if the person was still alive, but had sent a message to the North asking for them to be protected.
In September 2020 North Korean troops shot and burned a South Korean fisheries official who went missing at sea. Although the incident sparked uproar, North Korea blamed it on the anti-virus rule and apologized.
The two Koreas are split along the world’s most heavily armed border, called the Demilitarized Zone. An estimated 2 million mines are peppered inside and near the 248-kilometer (155-mile) -long, 4-kilometer (2.5-mile) -wide DMZ, which is also guarded by barbed wire fences, tank traps, and combat troops on both sides.
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the late 1990s to avoid poverty or political oppression, but a vast majority of them have come via China and Southeast Asian countries. Some South Koreans have tried to defect to the impoverished, authoritarian North, but it is rare.
