SEOUL: A North Korean has defected to the South across a de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported Thursday (Aug 8). Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s.
A South Korea n military vessel tows a North Korea n boat carried people believed to be seeking to defect from the country, to a port in Yangyang, South Korea Oct 24, 2023. SEOUL: A North Korea n has defected to the South across a de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea, South Korea 's Yonhap news agency reported Thursday .
The number of successful escapes dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders - purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China - to prevent the spread of COVID-19. 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.
"It is possible that the people who were unhappy with the North Korean system may have used this internal instability and confusion to defect."
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