SEOULAThe South Korean military announced Friday that an unidentified North Korean man had crossed the heavily guarded land border between the two Koreas and was now in its custody.
The military located and followed the guy close to the central-west portion of the military demarcation line, carried out a guiding operation, and arrested him Thursday night, according to the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.
It stated that police want to look into the border crossing, but it did not immediately state if they believe the incident to be an attempt at defection.
The Joint Chiefs said it had not immediately noticed any indications of extraordinary military activity by the North and had reported the incident to the United Nations Command, which is run by the United States.
A South Korean military squad reportedly spotted the unarmed North Korean guy and, after identifying themselves as South Korean troops, led him safely out of the mine-strewn Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas, according to the Joint Chiefs.
In recent months, tensions along the border have escalated as the two Koreas engaged in psychological warfare akin to that of the Cold War, with South Korea using loudspeakers to blast anti-Pyongyang propaganda and North Korea launching thousands of balloons packed with trash toward the South.
Since assuming office last month, South Korea’s new liberal president, Lee Jae Myung, has worked to mend fences with North Korea by banning activists from flying balloons across the border with propaganda leaflets and stopping frontline loudspeaker broadcasts.
About ten North Korean soldiers briefly breached the military demarcation line in April, but were repelled by warning shots fired by South Korean troops. The South Korean military claimed that the North did not retaliate and that the soldiers safely returned to North Korean territory.
South Korea fired warning shots after North Korean troops breached the border three times in June of last year. According to experts, these crossings might have happened by accident as North Korean forces strengthened border defenses with anti-tank barriers, mines, and other measures in response to rising tensions between the two Koreas.
Since the 2019 collapse of denuclearization negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang, which led North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to accelerate the expansion of his military nuclear program and threaten nuclear conflict toward Washington and Seoul, diplomacy between the war-torn Koreas has stalled. In response, South Korea’s former conservative administration stepped up joint military drills with Japan and the United States, which the North denounced as practice for an impending invasion.
