Seoul, South Korea. South Korean media say a North Korean resident escaped to the South through waters in the western part of the border between the two countries and expressed his intention to resettle in the South.
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing unnamed military sources, said the unidentified individual crossed an estuary where the Han River meets the Yellow Sea and was captured by South Korean troops on the South Korean border island of Gyodong.
When South Korean Defense Minister Shin Won-sik was asked about the report during a parliamentary session, he said South Korea’s National Intelligence Service was investigating related matters, but did not elaborate.
South Korea’s spy agency and military did not immediately confirm the alleged defection.
Tensions between the war-divided rivals are at their highest point in years as North Korean leader Kim Jong Un continues to use Russia’s war against Ukraine as a distraction to further accelerate his weapons development and continues verbal threats of a nuclear conflict with Washington and Seoul.
In response, South Korea, the United States and Japan have been expanding their combined military exercises and fine-tuning their nuclear deterrence strategies based on American strategic military assets.
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