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AN UNIDENTIFIED PERSON entered North Korea from South Korea on New Year’s Day, the military in Seoul said today, a rare breach of the heavily fortified border between the two neighbours.
Years of repression and poverty in North Korea have led more than 30,000 people to flee to the South in the decades since the Korean War, but crossings in the other direction are extremely rare.
The person was detected by surveillance equipment in the Demilitarised Zone – which divides the Korean peninsula – at 9:20 pm local time yesterday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said today.
It sparked a search operation by the military, but to no avail.
“It was confirmed the person crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the North,” it added.
The person has not been identified yet, a JCS official told reporters, adding South Korean authorities sent a message to the North on Sunday regarding the incident.
No unusual activity by the North Korean military has been detected, he said.
In 2020, North Korean troops shot dead and burned the body of a South Korean fisheries official Pyongyang said had illegally crossed the maritime border.
In the same year, a North Korean who had defected to the South three years earlier sneaked back across the heavily fortified border.
His crossing prompted North Korean officials to put the border city of Kaesong under lockdown over fears he may have the coronavirus.
The vast majority of North Korean who escape first go to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country.
Only a few have dared to cross the DMZ, which is riddled with landmines and has a heavy military presence on both sides.
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I read a book recently where many who defect to the South have thought of returning home because live is so different and many tend not to integrate very well. North Koreans also tend to get the menial jobs and can be looked down on. They often think it may be the only way out of isolation and loneliness.
@Sean Higgins: yes naomi Park explains this very well. Many defectors end up going back in the first 2 years as they cannot cope with the difference in life between the 2 Koreas.
@Sean Higgins: A bit like Fine Gaelers looking down on shinners here. ALAS times are a changing
@pistachio 32: take a day off from the persecution complex, nothing to do with Irish politics whatsoever.
@Patrick Daly: No
@Sean Higgins: I watched a documentary i think on netflix about a north korean defector who escaped to south korea. He said a couple of things. Everyone in south korea was governed by money. Then he said every day he heard of someone committing suicide in south korea which shocked him as few people did in the north.
He said life was better in the south, especially as he was in a salt mine. But he was quick to emphasize that it wasnt much better and the south had problems of its own.
@pistachio 32: Youd know all about illegal crossings across Borders.
@Dave Johnston: never crossed a border illegally in my life
@pistachio 32:
@pistachio 32:
@pistachio 32: did the council ever come south or have they remained in the north and just pulled the strings on their puppets
@Mjhint: would they not be sent to labour camps when they return?
Stag party gone wrong?
James Bond ?
The Lord mayor of Leixlip finally made it! God speed you beautiful b*stard!
@Y U no spell good?: ??
@Y U no spell good?: gotcha. Looked it up on You tube!
@John Kenny: his insta is well worth a follow
It’s usually the other way round lol..
Should’ve gone to Specsavers.
Seems a rather foolhardy and dangerous move. Bordering on the ridiculous even…
@William Tallon: wasn’t it yourself William that once told me never to judge a person until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes?
@pistachio 32: after that who cares, you’re a mile away and you have his shoes.
@pistachio 32: I may very well have done pistachio but who remembers things like that on the Journal throwaway comments section? You do quite obviously, which is weird and bordering on the nutty…
@William Tallon: nothing wrong with pistachio nuts.
@pistachio 32: You would say that of course…
@William Tallon: another of your throwaway comments?
I might join them.
I think his name is Corrigan.
Defected.
The girl with seven names by Hyeonse Lee is a good book about this topic
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