A South Korean citizen has crossed the border into North Korea in an apparent defection, South Korea’s military says. The person was able to evade detection for several hours despite a search operation by South Korean troops. Military chiefs in Seoul said they did not know if the person was still alive but had sent a message to the North asking for them to be protected.
North Korea has implemented a shoot-on-sight policy during the pandemic. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the person was detected in the Demilitarised Zone, DMZ, which separates the two Koreas, at a point on the east coast on Saturday night. Meanwhile, defence officials in Seoul had pledged to overhaul the border defence system after similar breaches in the past.