A North Korean man with diving equipment swam to South Korea on Tuesday in an apparent attempt to defect from the Kim Jong Un Hermit Kingdom, South Korean military officials said on Wednesday.
The man, who was reportedly in his 20s, appeared to have swam across the sea border and crawled through a drainage pipe under a barbed wire fence, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said in a press release obtained by the country’s JoongAng Daily.
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He was first seen on closed-circuit surveillance cameras passing a military checkpoint at 4:20 am, but was not captured until three hours later, when he entered the restricted civilian control zone, the military said. The area is located south of the 2.5-mile wide Demilitarized Zone, or DMZ, which acts as a buffer between the two Koreas.
The military acknowledged its failure to act quickly and capture the man.
“Our military has not taken adequate measures, although the man has been detected on his surveillance system several times since he landed,” the military said, according to The New York Times.
South Korean army soldiers patrol along the barbed wire fence in Paju, South Korea, near the border with North Korea on June 15, 2020. (AP Photo / Ahn Young-joon) – Archive
Military officials are investigating the man’s motive for crossing the border and how he managed to swim in the winter, according to JoongAng Daily.
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The man is a civilian who told the South that he wanted to desert the North.
JCS said a diving suit and fins were found on the beach in Goseong, Gangwon, where he first landed. He said the suit was not made of rubber and wore a detachable metal helmet, often worn by North Korean fishermen.
“We take this situation seriously and are conducting an on-site investigation with the Land Forces Command,” the military said in a statement. “We will take follow-up measures and severe actions according to the results of the investigation.”
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The apparent defection would be the second in a matter of months after a North Korean man climbed a border fence in November and continued half a mile before being captured by the South, The Times reported.