A North Korean refugee in the South was arrested after causing an accident aboard a stolen bus near the inter-Korean border while trying to return to the other side, police said Wednesday.
The man fled to the South in 2011. But this thirty-year-old construction worker ended up feeling homesick, as isolated as he was. “His living conditions are difficult and he misses his family,” explained an investigator. So the defector decided to return to North Korea, using a stolen bus.
Charged with violating national security laws
But on a bridge located just south of the highly protected demilitarized zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas, the 30-year-old ignored the soldiers’ orders and crashed into a barricade, according to the Gyeonggi Bukbu provincial police. He was arrested and could be charged with theft and violating national security laws, he added.
Crossings from the South to the North are rare in Korea, with defectors generally going the other way, often via China by crossing the Yalu (or Amnok) River which marks the border between North Korea and its big neighbor.
More than 34,000 North Koreans have fled to the South since the Korean War (1950-1953), but a few refugees from the North have tried to return. Between 2012 and 2021, 31 refugees returned to the North, according to South Korea’s Unification Ministry. In January 2022, a concierge established in the South returned to the North, crossing the eastern part of the DMZ.
Relations between the two Koreas have been particularly bad recently. Pyongyang is increasing its weapons tests and sending garbage balloons to the South, while Seoul has suspended a military agreement and resumed broadcasting propaganda in response.
