SEOUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th February, 2021) South Korean military has detained a suspicious man near the demilitarized zone of the inter-Korean border, where civilians are not allowed, the Yonhap news agency reported on Tuesday, citing the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).
According to the news agency, the man's identity, as well as the reasons why he was around a military checkpoint in the buffer zone in the early hours of the day have not been yet established.
"A probe is under way. We will give further details after wrapping up the investigation," the JCS was cited as saying by the news agency.
In a later update, the military said that the man is likely to be a North Korean national.
"The unidentified man is believed to be a North Korean citizen. We are jointly investigating details with the relevant agencies ... and whether he will stay here," the JCS said.
According to media reports, the man, who is between 20 and 25 years old, has expressed readiness to stay in South Korea.
The military is not ruling out that he made his way to South Korea by sea, as a guard post where he was first spotted is not far from the coast.
The last time a similar incident took place was in November 2020, when a North Korean civilian crossed the border into the South in a suspected defection bid. The man managed to surpass barbed wire and other barriers, but ended up caught on video surveillance. It was not until some 10 hours later that the South Korean military announced detaining him. Following the incident, Seoul took measures to improve its border surveillance system.
