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South Korea took a worker from the North into custody aft the idiosyncratic crossed the heavy fortified borderline this week successful what is believed to beryllium a defection, South Korea's Yonhap quality bureau reported Wednesday.
"The subject secured 1 North Korean worker successful the cardinal beforehand Tuesday nighttime and applicable authorities are presently investigating the details," Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said successful a connection to the media, according to Yonhap.
Tens of thousands of North Koreans person fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by warfare successful the 1950s. The past clip a North Korean worker made the daring move was October 2025.
Most spell overland to neighboring China first, past participate a 3rd state specified arsenic Thailand earlier yet making it to the South.
Defections crossed the onshore borderline that divides the peninsula are comparatively rare, arsenic the country is densely forested, ridden with landmines and monitored by soldiers connected some sides.
South Korean soldiers patrol on a barbed ligament obstruction Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating North and South Korea, connected the South Korean land of Ganghwa, successful a April 23, 2020 record photo.
ED JONES/AFP/Getty
North Koreans are typically handed implicit to Seoul's quality bureau for screening aft arriving successful the South.
More than 34,000 North Koreans person escaped the isolated state to the South, according to information from the Unification Ministry.
In 2024, 236 North Koreans arrived successful South Korea, with women accounting for 88 percent of the total.
Pyongyang uses harsh words specified arsenic "human scum" to picture citizens who escape.
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