Many North Korean defectors have trouble adjusting to life in the capitalist South after leaving their authoritarian homeland. (Aaron Kidd/Stars and Stripes)
OSAN AIR BASE, South Korea — A former defector, unhappy with life in the South, stole a 25-seat shuttle bus this week and attempted to cross a bridge into North Korea before he was apprehended by guards.
The defector, 35, was caught at 12:55 a.m. Monday on the Tongil Bridge, or Unification Bridge, in Paju city, by South Korean military guards and turned over to civilian police, according to military and police spokespeople Tuesday.
Privacy laws prohibit authorities from publicly identifying most people under arrest in South Korea. The defector was held on suspicion of theft and violating the National Security Act, a police spokesman said.
The defector found the key to the minibus in a company garage in Munsan town, crawled through a window near the driver’s seat and drove nearly three miles to the bridge’s south checkpoint, a spokesman for North Gyeonggi Provincial Police said by phone.
The lane toward the checkpoint was heavily guarded, so the unidentified defector drove in the opposing lane onto the bridge, the spokesman said.
Bypassing the checkpoint and ignoring guards trying to stop him, the defector drove another 900 yards before hitting a barricade in front of the north checkpoint, where soldiers stopped him, the spokesman said.
Government spokespeople in South Korea customarily speak to the media on condition of anonymity.
No one was injured in the incident, and the fleeing defector was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, the police spokesman said.
The defector has lived in South Korea since 2011 and told police he missed his family in North Korea and has not held a steady job in the South since he arrived, the spokesman said. He settled in a section of southwestern Seoul and has worked as a day laborer.
He was familiar with the bridge and Paju, having worked in the city, according to police.
Many defectors have trouble adjusting to life in the capitalist South after leaving their authoritarian homeland. Nearly 40% of defectors living in Seoul are receiving payments through the National Basic Livelihood system, a form of welfare in South Korea, according to a Seoul Institute report from October 2023.
Between 2012 and 2020, at least 30 defectors returned to North Korea, a spokeswoman for the South Korean Ministry of Unification said by phone Tuesday.
