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SEOUL: The South Korean military said on Wednesday (November 4) that it had detained a North Korean man who crossed the heavily fortified border with North Korea to the South, prompting an urgent search operation.
The man was found around 9.50 a.m. (8.50 a.m. Singapore time) at the eastern end of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the two Koreas, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding that there were no unusual movements. among North Korean troops.
READ: South Korean police arrest a deserter trying to cross back to North Korea
“An investigation is planned to find out details about the man, including how he got down and whether he wanted to defect,” the JCS said in a statement.
The person was first seen crossing barbed wire fences installed along the border at 7.26 pm Tuesday (1026 GMT), News1 reported, citing an anonymous military source.
The Yonhap news agency said the army had issued a “Jindotgae” anti-infiltration alert for the eastern border area.
The Defense Ministry declined to confirm those reports, citing an ongoing investigation.
The operation came as South Korea resumed its tours of the southern part of the DMZ on Wednesday, which has witnessed several armed clashes but also served as the setting for key inter-Korean events, including some of the more recent summits.
But the program was suspended in October 2019 after a deadly African swine fever outbreak broke out in North Korea, and then amid concerns about this year’s novel coronavirus.
In 2018, a North Korean soldier defected to South Korea through the eastern DMZ. North Korean troops fired at another soldier as he was driving an army truck through the DMZ in a dramatic escape south in 2017.
