Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Friday said a North Korean civilian had defected across the heavily mined land border into , with the help of the South’s military in a 20-hour operation.
While tens of thousands have fled to the South since the peninsula was divided in the 1950s, most take an indirect route through China and a third country like Thailand.
What do we know about the crossing?
The man was first detected by South Korean military surveillance equipment sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. on Thursday near a shallow stream inside the DMZ.
He stayed had mostly still during daylight hours to avoid capture and was at times difficult to track because of the thick forest, the JCS said.
South Korean troops approached him that night and eventually made contact near the Military Demarcation Line, the de facto border within the DMZ.
“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,” the JCS said. Troops then “successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody.”
When the man first noticed the soldiers, he asked, “Who are you?” The troops replied, “We are the South Korean military. We’ll guide you to safety.”The man crossed the MDL and joined the South Korean troops, who then escorted him south out of the DMZ.
The entire operation, which involved a significant number of troops navigating dense vegetation and landmine hazards, took about 20 hours, the JCS said.
How do most people escape North Korea?
About 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the Korean War in the 1950s.
However, fewer North Koreans have recently been able to cross the DMZ successfully.
Crossings directly through the 248-kilometer (155-mile) long, 4-kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) are extremely .
The heavily fortified buffer zone between North and South Korea — about 240 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide — serves as the de facto border between the two countries, which technically remain at war since the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.
While tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled their impoverished and tightly controlled homeland over the decades, most do so by entering China across the Yalu River in the west and the Tumen River in the east.
To avoid being unwillingly repatriated to the North by China, they then travel through third countries before reaching South Korea.
South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung has made efforts to rebuild trust with North, since taking office last month, including shutting down against North Korea along the border.
Edited by: Sean Sinico
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