South Korean fled to DPRK

The South Korean military announced the crossing of the land border with North Korea by an unknown compatriot, despite hours of attempts to stop his intention to leave the country, Yonhap reported on January 2.

“We started an operation to capture a person in the demilitarized zone. But due to various geographic conditions, including mountainous terrain, we were unable to do this, ”said a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), speaking on condition of anonymity.

After the first discovery of an unknown person in the demilitarized zone dividing the two Koreas, at about 21:20 (15:20 Moscow time) on Saturday evening, the military sent troops to the scene to capture the fugitive, but could not do this.

While trying to identify the fugitive using monitoring equipment, the military found that an unknown person had made his way through a barbed wire fence to enter the demilitarized zone at about 18:40 (12:40 Moscow time). That is, the military was in the dark for several hours about the violation of the border.

South Korean authorities sent a message to North Korea on the border incident Sunday morning, but the fugitive’s fate remains unclear. It is known that the DPRK has a “shoot to kill” policy as part of tightening border controls against COVID-19.

In September 2020, a South Korean official was shot dead by the DPRK border guard after disappearing from a patrol ship near the border with the Yellow Sea. This happened despite a promise from the South Korean military to rebuild the border defense system and equip with more powerful surveillance equipment.

At the end of December, the Ministry of Unification of South Korea called on the DPRK authorities to start the new year, 2022, with joint actions to resume dialogue and cooperation. In turn, the leader of the DPRK Kim Jong-un, summing up the results of the year, announced the need to win the “great mortal combat” in 2022.