The man who last Saturday I entered Illegally in North Korea across the border separating South Korea and South Korea, there is a North Korean citizen who fled to South Korea in 2020. The man’s identity was revealed after he was not known two days ago, and nothing about him. At the moment we do not know the reasons that would have prompted him to return to his country, where, moreover, he risks punishment for his trip, but it is known that he lived in South Korea in great economic difficulties.
Crossing from South Korea to North Korea across the border is rare, with illegal crossings usually taking place in the opposite direction to escape the North Korean regime and seek refuge in DPRK. The man has been seen. South Korean authorities at about 9 pm Saturday in the “demilitarized zone” (DMZ), the strip of land that divides the Korean Peninsula and which despite its name is guarded by soldiers on both sides, as well as filled with mines and surrounded. by barbed wire.
Crossing the demilitarized zone is illegal in both directions, and also very dangerous: usually many people who leave North Korea to get to South Korea do by passing from somewhere else, for example from China. About 30 thousand North Koreans currently live in South Korea, and in the past decade only about thirty have returned to North Korea.
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A South Korean Defense Ministry official on Monday He said That the man, who has not been named, is a North Korean national of about thirty years old who fled in November 2020, in this case also passed into the “demilitarized zone”. The man was identified by comparing video recordings of border crossings at the time and recordings from last Saturday. Subsequent reconstructions revealed that the man faced great economic hardship in South Korea, where he worked as a cleaner.
In South Korea, the episode revived long-standing debates about the living conditions of North Korean defectors who, Secondly Many activists, however, do not find adequate living conditions once they arrive in South Korea, often after risking their lives to leave their country.
After details emerged on Monday, South Korea’s Unification Ministry He said The man received economic, medical, and social support for North Korean defectors from the South Korean government. The Korean press also wrote that last June the man said he wanted to return to North Korea, but social services and police at the time did not express concerns about him, believing there was no evidence to consider it a concrete possibility.
– Read also: What happens to the North Koreans who defect?
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