A North Korean defector living in South Korea has been detained after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarised border, in a failed attempt to return to his isolated homeland.
The man – who fled to the South in 2011 – ignored warnings from soldiers to stop while attempting on Tuesday to drive through the Tongil Bridge in Paju, just south of the heavily fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, according to media reports citing South Korean provincial police.
“He lives under difficult economic conditions as a construction worker and misses his family still in the North,” an investigator told Agence France-Presse, explaining the man’s reasons for the attempted crossing.
The police are considering charging the suspect, who is in his 30s, with theft and violating national security laws, the investigator added.
Crossings from the South to the North are rare, with defectors typically heading in the opposite direction, though many struggle to adapt to life in their democratic, capitalist neighbour.
More than 34,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the 1950-53 Korean war, mostly after arduous, sometimes life-threatening journeys, usually via China, to escape poverty and oppression at home, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.
The ministry, which handles cross-border affairs and provides resettlement support for defectors, said in 2022 that about 30 defectors were confirmed to have returned to the North since 2012, but defectors and activists say there could be many more unreported cases.
In early 2022, a defector in his 30s made a rare, risky return to North Korea across the heavily fortified border after struggling to cope in the South, igniting fresh debate over how such escapers are treated in their new home country.
Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang ramping up weapons tests and bombarding the South with balloons carrying rubbish, and Seoul suspending a military deal and resuming propaganda broadcasts in response.
With Reuters and Agence France-Presse
