North and South Korea share a 248-kilometer border guarded by land mines, tank traps and combat troops on both sides
Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) on Friday said a North Korean civilian had defected across the heavily mined land border into South Korea, with the help of the South’s military in a 20-hour operation.
While tens of thousands have fled North Korea to the South since the peninsula was divided in the 1950s, most take an indirect route through China and a third country like Thailand.
North Korean defector: ‘We are not traitors’
What do we know about the crossing?
The man was first detected by South Korean military surveillance equipment sometime between 3 and 4 a.m. (1800-1900 GMT/UTC on Wednesday) on Thursday near a shallow stream inside the DMZ.
He had mostly stayed still during daylight hours to avoid capture and was at times difficult to track because of the thick forest, the JCS said.
South Korean troops approached him that night and eventually made contact near the Military Demarcation Line, the de facto border within the DMZ.
“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted tracking and surveillance,” the JCS said. Troops then “successfully carried out a standard guiding operation to secure custody.”
When the man first noticed the soldiers, he asked, “Who are you?” The troops replied, “We are the South Korean military. We’ll guide you to safety.”
The man crossed the MDL and joined the South Korean troops, who then escorted him south out of the DMZ.
The entire operation, which involved a significant number of troops navigating dense vegetation and landmine hazards, took about 20 hours, the JCS said.
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