SECURITY BREAK – In spite of an overprotected device and considerable military means, a person from South Korea managed to cross the “demilitarized zone” which separates him from his neighbor, to enter North Korea. A mysterious and unprecedented intrusion.
The drafting of LCI with AFP –
An extremely rare crossing in a no man’s land in principle impenetrable. One person entered North Korea by land from the South on New Year’s Day, the South Korean military reported on Sunday (January 2nd). An unexpected crossing of this ultra-fortified border which has separated the two countries since 1953. The individual was detected on January 1 by surveillance equipment at 9:20 p.m. local time in the region. “demilitarized zone” (DMZ, from English “demilitarized zone”) that divides the Korean Peninsula, the South Korea Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee said.
If it has not yet been formally identified, the Ministry of Defense in Seoul has indulged in some indiscretions. He would be a North Korean defector. “We assume this is the same man who defected south by scaling the barbed wire fence in November 2020”, an official told AFP. The individual is in his thirties, added this representative. He allegedly worked as a maintenance worker in South Korea after he defected, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap. However, no evidence of espionage has been discovered so far.
An extremely rare passage to the north
After this passage from South to North, a search operation was launched by the South Korean military, without result. At the same time, Seoul informed Pyongyang of this clandestine entry. Kim Jong-un’s regime said it received this information, but did not act on it, a defense ministry official told AFP.
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Years of repression and poverty in North Korea led more than 30,000 people to flee to the South in the decades following the Korean War, but crossings in the other direction are extremely rare. In 2020, North Korean troops shot and burned the body of a South Korean fisheries official who Pyongyang said had illegally crossed the sea border.
The vast majority of North Koreans who escape first go to China before heading south, usually via another country. Only a few have dared to cross the DMZ, a corridor about 4 km wide and 248 long riddled with mines and barbed wire, and where the military presence is massive on both sides, with military camps and artillery. The areas adjoining this monitored strip of land are also among the most fortified places in the world.
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