A South Korean military has said that a South Korean military has crossed the heavily fortified border in a rare defection to North Korea.
More than 30,000 people have fled to the South since Korean war hostilities ended with an armistice, but crossings in the other direction are extremely rare, because of years of repression and poverty in North Korea.
The joint chiefs of staff of JCS said they carried out a search operation after detecting the person on the eastern side of the demilitarised zone DMZ separating the two Koreas on Saturday evening.
The person crossed the military demarcation line border about 10.40 pm and defected to the North, the JCS said on Sunday.
The border crossing, which is illegal in South Korea, comes as North Korea carries out strict anti-coronavirus measures after shutting its borders in early 2020, although it has not confirmed any infections.
A public and political uproar ensued in September 2020 after North Korean troops shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who went missing at sea, for which Pyongyang blamed anti-viruses rules and apologised.
Two months earlier, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un declared a national emergency and sealed off a border town after a North Korean defector who had earlier defected to the South returned to the North and said he had Covid 19 symptoms.
The North's extended lock downs and restrictions on inter-provincial movement have also pushed the number of North Korean defectors arriving in the South to an all-time low.
The majority of North Koreans who escape first go to China before making their way to the South, usually via another country.
Only a few have dared to cross the DMZ, which is riddled with landmines and has a heavy military presence on both sides.
South Korea and a US-led UN force are technically still at war with North Korea, since the Korean war between 1950 and 1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty.