North Korean defects to South Korea, says Seoul military
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
The person was a staff sergeant reportedly given some guidance from the South’s military during the defection.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Follow topic:
SEOUL – A North Korean defected to the South by walking across the heavily fortified border that separates the two countries in the Korean peninsula, Seoul’s military said on Aug 20.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, but the majority cross the land border into China first.
Preliminary figures from the South’s Unification Ministry show that in 2024, until June, some 105 people defected.
On Aug 20, Seoul’s military said it had picked up “one suspected North Korean individual on the eastern front and handed (the person) over to the relevant authorities”.
Yonhap news agency reported that the defector was a staff sergeant who was given some guidance from the South’s military during the defection.
The number of defections dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders to prevent the spread of Covid-19 – apparently with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China.
But after border controls eased in 2023, the number of defections rose – with 196 people making it to the South in 2023.
Local media outlets reported that the latest defector walked along the road by the waterfront in eastern Gangwon province, and was wearing a North Korean military uniform when picked up by the authorities.
The defection is the second in August, after another person made it across the de facto maritime border
The latest defections come as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing and bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons
Professor Park Won-gon of Ewha Womans University said a rise in defections suggested the “internal situation is bad in North Korea”.
He noted news reports of floods in the North, with state media showing leader Kim Jong Un personally trying to help
Heavy rainfall hit the North’s northern regions in late July, with South Korean media outlets reporting a possible death toll of up to 1,500 people.
In response to North Korea’s trash balloon campaign, Seoul fully suspended a military tension-reducing deal
Such campaigns can take months to have any impact on defections, Prof Park said.
“Turning on the loudspeaker doesn’t mean the North Koreans are going to defect to the South right away,” he added. AFP
