The reasons why an as-yet-unidentified person crossed the border that divides the two Koreas on New Year’s Day is still unknown.
The monitoring system in the demilitarized zone that divides the Korean peninsula limited someone’s entry into North Korea, and even tight border controls were not enough to prevent escape. “We launched a mission to capture the person in the DMZ, but due to geographical conditions, including mountainous terrain, we failed in that attempt,” a military official told South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
And the military authorities in South Korea issued the warning, which they believe is a “northern fugitive,” anyone who has already fled North Korea. The person entered North Korea at around 10:40 p.m. local time and his whereabouts are unknown. In view of this, the South Korean leader sent to Pyongyang a request for protection and security for the person who crossed the border. However, the North Korean leader did not respond.
Going back in history, it is possible to identify rare cases of schisms from south to north. However, since the late 1990s, more than 33,000 people from North Korea have fled to South Korea in search of better living conditions, thus escaping the poverty and oppression in the country led by Kim Jong Un over the past decade. It is suspected that many returned to not adapt to the lifestyle, the fate of many remains unknown.
It is reported that in September 2020, South Korean officer Lee Dae-joon threw himself into the waters off the North Korean coast, after being discovered, interrogated and shot dead by the military. The 47-year-old’s body was doused in fuel and cremated by soldiers wearing gas masks, under precautionary measures put in place by Pyongyang to combat the coronavirus.
