According to South Korean media, the man left the North for the South around ten years ago, but reconsidered his decision, now wishing to return to his country of origin.after encountering difficulties“. On video surveillance images, he can be seen stealing the bus during the night, in a garage in the town of Paju, in the north of the country. Crossing the border from the South to the North, the deserter thus violated South Korean law, which “prohibited to citizens, including defectors“to perform such an act”without government authorization“, as the BBC points out. For these actions, he faces a sentence of up to ten years in prison.
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A risky decision
Since the division of the Korean peninsula into two independent states in 1948, no fewer than 34,000 North Koreans have fled the Pyongyang regime. Each year, more than 1,000 North Korean defectors are welcomed by Seoul, which automatically offers them citizenship. Between 2012 and 2022, only 31 of them made the reverse journey. If those who leave are numerous, the dissidents who seek to return to the country are, for their part, very rare. A decision often motivated by financial or family reasons, but which is no less risky. Some former returnees have already been imprisoned by the regime, or forced to undergo strict re-education in the past.
