The Fate Of South Korean Defectors Who Entered North Korea Is Not Yet Known

North Korea's authoritarian government, often considered by the west to oppress its people. (photo: unsplash doc)

JAKARTA - North Korea's authoritarian government, which is often perceived by the west as oppressing its people, has not made a South Korean citizen angry. On the contrary, he instead defected to North Korea. According to regulations in North Korea, which is still at war with South Korea, they prohibit South Koreans from visiting North Korea.

But in principle, anyone can visit North Korea according to Kim Jong Un's government. Although North Korea usually prohibits journalists and South Koreans from visiting there.

On the other hand, North Koreans are allowed by South Korea to enter their country or if they want to defect. In fact, about 34,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the late 1990s to escape poverty or political repression. But most of them come via China and Southeast Asian countries.

North Korea has also targeted its own defectors with propaganda in a bid to lure them back as double defectors. However, defectors from South Korea who were previously recorded as having been born outside North Korea are generally not allowed to defect to the North.

In recent years there have been seven people who have tried to leave South Korea to head to North Korea. However, they were detained for illegal entry into North Korea. In the end, he was even sent home. As of 2019, there were reportedly 5,461 former South Korean citizens living in North Korea.

It is not known for certain whether the last defector to enter North Korea on December 2 will suffer the same fate as the other defectors who were returned to South Korea, or if Kim Jong Un receives the same fate as the previous five thousand South Koreans.

However, until now the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea are still carrying out a search operation after it detected the whereabouts of the resident on Saturday, January 1 at 9:20 p.m. local time in the eastern part of the Demilitarized Zone, the area that separates South and North Korea.

"We have confirmation that the person crossed the border of the Military Demarcation Line at around 10:40 p.m. and fled to (Korea) North," the JCS said. However, JCS has not confirmed the reason for the defection.

The JCS also could not confirm whether the person was alive, but had sent a notification to North Korea through a special military channel asking them to provide security.