South Korean police have arrested a North Korean defector who tried to return to North Korea in a stolen bus, the BBC reports.
A man was caught on Tuesday on the Unification Bridge that separates the two Koreas after he ignored soldiers who asked him to stop and then rammed the bus into a barricade.
He told police that he wanted to return to North Korea after experiencing difficulties in the South, according to South Korean media. He reportedly left North Korea ten years ago.
He stole a bus on Tuesday at 01:00 local time from a garage in the town of Paj in the north of the country and was caught half an hour later.
It was established that he was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident.
South Korean law prohibits citizens, including defectors, from crossing the border into the North without government approval. North Korean defectors in the South are automatically granted citizenship. Offenders, however, can face up to ten years in prison if convicted.
The man, who worked as a day laborer in Paju and other cities, told police he had accumulated several unpaid fines, according to South Korean media.
Although about 34.000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the Korean Peninsula was divided (more than 70 years ago), few have wished to return to the North.
South Korea receives over 1.000 defectors from the North every year. By contrast, the number of defectors who returned to North Korea was just 31 from 2012 to 2022, according to the Unification Ministry.
Some return or try to do so, because the lives of defectors in the South sometimes do not live up to expectations. Defectors earn an average of 2,3 million won (about 1.500 euros) per month. Some want to go back to see their family members.
Upon returning to the north, some returnees were imprisoned, while others underwent "re-education".
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