South Korea has detained a North Korean man who believed it was trying to defect by crossing the heavily armed border separating the two countries.
According to media reports from South Korea, the man was first seen crossing the barbed wire fence before 7.30 pm on Tuesday evening.
At 9.50 am on Wednesday, he was apprehended by surveillance equipment, which saw him at the eastern end of the demilitarized zone. [DMZ], A 248 km long (155 mi) strip of land scattered with mines.
It was not clear whether the man was a soldier or civilian, although reports stated that he was not in uniform.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement, “An investigation is planned to find out how the details about the man have been included and how he wants to be absolved.”
The Ministry of Defense refused to confirm the report of a Yonhap news agency, stating that the military had issued an “anti-Jindotge” anti-intrusion warning for the eastern border region.
The incident comes within weeks after an official from South Korea’s fisheries ministry was killed after sneaking into North Korea through the countries’ maritime border, claiming that North Korean troops shot him Was given, dipped his body in fuel and set it. Alight. The South’s intelligence agency said it had “circumstantial evidence” this week, indicating that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un had launched an investigation into the shooting.
Some of the 31,000 North Koreans who have been defeated in the South over the past two decades have done so through the DMZ, the scene for occasional military skirmishes, but also scheduled for cross-border negotiations at the time of the Dentant. Most of the guards cross into China and come south through a third country, often Thailand.
In 2018, a North Korean soldier defeated South Korea through the eastern side of the DMZ, while another was shot dead by his compatriots when he went dramatically southward into the border in 2017.
South Korea on Wednesday began visits to its areas in the border village of Panmunjom a year after being suspended due to an outbreak of African swine fever in the north and recently expressed concern over the spread of coronovirus.
The South’s Unification Minister Lee In-Young did not mention the suspected defection at a ceremony held to mark the resumption of tourism on Wednesday, but the recent difference between all Koreans within the DMZ making free travel and -Korean asked to be in the spotlight. Restored.
“Re-establishing round-the-clock communication channels will be a foundation for restoring inter-Korean relations,” Lee said.
North Korean state media have not commented on Wednesday’s incident at the border, which has separated countries since the end of the Korean War of 1950–53. South Korea said it had not seen any unusual activity by the North’s military.
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