Overview

• South Korean forces discovered him early Friday at a shallow stream in the Demilitarized Zone after conducting a roughly 20-hour search operation.
• He followed military instructions, identified himself as a civilian and was taken into custody late Thursday night before being handed over to government agencies.
• Unarmed and moving mostly under cover of darkness, he sought to evade detection in a sector that spans up to four kilometers of mine-studded terrain.
• Officials have opened a probe into his background and intentions to determine whether he was attempting to defect or had other motives.
• Since pandemic border closures halted crossings, indirect arrivals have resumed growing, with 236 North Koreans reaching the South in 2024 compared with as many as 1,000 per year before COVID-19.