Seoul: North Korea defector likely made rare border crossing

By HYUNG-JIN KIM
Associated Press

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea says a person who crossed the border into North Korea on New Year’s Day was likely a defector who had slipped through the same heavily fortified frontier in the other direction in late 2020. South Korean surveillance equipment detected an unidentified person entering North Korean territory on Saturday. The military says its security camera showed the person crawling over a barbed-wire fence along the southern edge of the border. The Defense Ministry says it suspects the person was a North Korean gymnast who had defected to South Korea earlier. The person’s fate isn’t known.