South Korean defects to North Korea in rare northward crossing of heavily armed border
- South Korea’s military said it could not confirm whether the person was alive, but sent a notice to the North via a military hotline asking for protection
- The rare defection was detected at about 10:40pm on Saturday and an unsuccessful search operation carried out, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said
“We’ve confirmed that the person crossed the Military Demarcation Line border about 10:40pm and defected to the North,” the JCS said.
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Rare reversal: South Korean defects to the North across heavily fortified DMZ
It said it could not confirm whether the person was alive, but sent a notice to the North via a military hotline asking for protection.
It was unclear if this was a rare case of a South Korean hoping to defect to the North, or it could be a North Korean who briefly entered the South Korean territory for some reason before returning to the North.
The border crossing, which is illegal in South Korea, came as North Korea carries out strict anti-coronavirus measures since shutting borders in early 2020, though it has not confirmed any infections.
