A man observed crossing the heavily fortified border from South Korea into North Korea last week is believed to be a North Korean who previously defected to the South in 2020 in the same area, Seoul's defence ministry said on Monday.
detecting the person on Saturday"The authorities presume the person is a North Korean defector and are in the process of verifying related facts," the Ministry of National Defence said in a statement on Monday.A ministry official later told reporters they believe the man, who is his 30s, came to the South in November 2020.
South Korean media have reported the man had experience as a gymnast that helped him scale the fences, but the official said they could not confirm that. Two months earlier, North Korea had declared a national emergency and sealed off a border town after a North Korean defector with reported COVID-19 symptoms illegally crossed back from the South.While thousands of North Koreans have settled in the South, crossings of the DMZ are rare, with most defectors making their way through China.
When the suspected defector crossed from North Korea in 2020, he was not detained until 14 hours after he crossed the border, prompting a vow from South Korea's military to beef up security.
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