This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. (Last updated on Jan. 3, 2022 at 7:32 p.m. with new headline.)

The unidentified person who crossed the heavily guarded border into North Korea on New Year’s Day was “presumably” a high-profile defector who previously crossed into South Korea around a year earlier, according to Seoul’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) on Monday.

But a ministry official denied that the redefector was a DPRK spy, after South Korean authorities detected four individuals from North Korea near the demilitarized zone (DMZ) following the border crossing. The