The North Korean government repatriated a South Korean national Thursday who had illegally defected to the North via a third country.

Identified as Kim Sang Geun in a Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) report released on September 5, the 52-year old man entered North Korea through a third unnamed country in order to escape the hardships of living in South Korea.

“He frankly admitted his illegal entry into the DPRK and requested it to let him bring his family in the south so that he might live with them in the DPRK. But an institution concerned of the DPRK persuaded