It took six hours and two military alerts for South Korea to catch a defector | NK News
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October 03, 2026Oct 03, 2026

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It took six hours and two military alerts for South Korea to catch a defector

Human surveillance units only reported two out of 10 incidents where cameras recorded a man crossing the border

The South Korean military failed to immediately apprehend a male North Korean defector who crossed the border earlier this month, despite the fact that surveillance cameras captured the man’s movements 10 separate times at the heavily-fortified border.

On Tuesday, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said that human surveillance units only reported two of the 10 incidents where the North Korean man was recorded by automated cameras.

The man, who wore swimming flippers on his escape through the East Sea, was ultimately apprehended roughly six hours after he was first spotted and was later transferred to a hospital.

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