South Korea’s military said Wednesday it had detained a North Korean soldier overnight after he crossed near the central section of the inter-Korean border.
“The military secured a North Korean soldier on the central front on Tuesday night and relevant authorities are currently investigating the details,” Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a message to media including Yonhap.
South Korean news agency Yonhap also reported, without citing any sources, that it was believed the soldier wanted to leave the country.
How rare is it to cross the inter-Korean border?
North and South Korea are separated by a heavily fortified border, with a special demarcation zone known as the DMZ on either side of the border, and then secondary buffer zones.
Although thousands of North Koreans have fled to the South since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, they usually head north by overland route to neighboring China. From there they eventually enter a third country such as Thailand before moving south.
In 2024, the last year for which data has been published by South Korea’s Unification Ministry, 236 North Koreans arrived in the South.
However, defection across the land border is very rare. Much of the border is densely forested, the area is riddled with landmines, and the armies of both states closely patrol their respective sides.
Yonhap reports that the overnight crossing is the first such incident since 2026.
It said there have been four registered cases since the beginning of the Lee Jae-Myung administration last June. Two incidents occurred in July and the most recent incident occurred in October, According to Yonhap.
What happens to North Koreans who flee to the South?
New arrivals are handed over to intelligence services for security checks.
Once this process is complete, South Korea usually grants citizenship to the defectors, which North Korea views as an insult. It often talks about turncoats in very harsh terms.
Following the 1950–53 Korean War, the two Koreas are technically in a state of frozen war, having only signed an armistice, not a peace agreement.
Edited by: Rana Taha
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