“UNHAPPY WITH THE NORTH’S SYSTEM”
The North Korean crossed the “neutral zone of the Han River estuary located west of the inter-Korean land border” and then arrived at South Korea’s Gyodong island, Yonhap reported Thursday, citing unnamed military sources.
South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik told a parliamentary committee that an investigation was “underway by the relevant authorities”, according to the Yonhap report.
The incident is the first time in 15 months since a North Korean defected to South Korea through the Yellow Sea.
In May 2023, a family of nine escaped the North using a wooden boat.
Experts say defectors have likely been impacted by harsh living conditions, including food shortages and inadequate responses to natural disasters, while living in the isolated North.
“North Korea has suffered severe flood damage recently and has caused a lot of damage in other areas as well, including parts of the city,” Cheong Seong-chang, director of the Korean peninsula strategy at Sejong Institute, told AFP.
“It is possible that the people who were unhappy with the North Korean system may have used this internal instability and confusion to defect.”
Heavy rainfall hit the North’s northern regions in late July, with South Korean media reporting a possible death toll of up to 1,500 people.
Pyongyang treats defections as a serious crime and is believed to hand harsh punishments to transgressors, their families and even people tangentially linked to the incident.
South Korea has responded to the North’s increased weapons testing and trash-carrying ballon bombardments this year by resuming propaganda broadcasts along the border, suspending a tension-reducing military deal and restarting live-fire drills near the border.
