Rare case: Person intrudes into North Korea over a heavily fortified border - riddle about motivation

Created: 01/02/2022, 12:56 PM

South Korean Army soldiers patrol along the barbed wire fence in Paju, near the North Korean border.

The South Korean military announced on Sunday that an unidentified person had crossed the heavily fortified border into North Korea.

© Ahn Young-Joon / dpa

A person from South Korea has crossed the fortified border into North Korea.

This is extremely rare.

Seoul - While attempts to escape from the internationally isolated north to South Korea are not uncommon, it is very rare for people to attempt the opposite route.

But now it has happened again.

According to the South Korean military, an initially unidentified person illegally crossed the heavily fortified border to North Korea from South Korea.

The general staff announced on Sunday that the person was observed to walk through the four-kilometer-wide demilitarized zone (DMZ) to North Korea on Saturday night.

A search was unsuccessful.

North Korea was informed of the incident in the eastern part of the DMZ via a military communication line.

Border to North Korea crossed: "Border violation" apparently only noticed a few hours later

In an evaluation of surveillance images, it was later found that the person had already broken through the reinforced barbed wire fence in the DMZ between the two countries on Saturday evening, reported the national news agency Yonhap, citing a representative of the general staff.

The evaluation suggests that the border guards only noticed the "border violation" a few hours later.

Before the corona pandemic, many people fled North Korea every year because of starvation or oppression.

Usually, the escape does not take place via the border, which is fortified with mines and surveillance systems, but via the less monitored border to China.

Many later made their way to South Korea via third countries.

From South Korea to North Korea: border crossing extremely rare

Most recently, in 2020, a North Korean who had defected to the south three years earlier returned across the direct border to the north.

His crossing of the border prompted North Korean officials to cordon off the border town of Kaesong, fearing he might be infected with the coronavirus.

In September 2020, an incident caused a stir when an official from the South Korean Ministry of Fisheries was shot dead by North Korean border guards in the sea.

According to the information provided by the South Korean military at the time, the officer was on a patrol ship near the sea border off the west coast when he suddenly disappeared from the boat.

North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Il later apologized for the fatal shooting at the man.