Cops: North Korea Defector Steals Bus to Drive Home

A man who fled from North Korea a decade ago made a rare attempt to return this week on a stolen bus, according to South Korean police. The unnamed man in his 30s allegedly stole the bus from a garage in Paju, about 20 miles northwest of Seoul, around 1am local time Tuesday before heading toward the Unification Bridge separating the two Koreas. It is illegal to cross into North Korea from South Korea without government authorization, the BBC notes. Police said the man failed to obey orders to stop on the bridge within the demilitarization zone before crashing the bus into a barricade.

South Korea accepts more than 1,000 North Korean defectors every year, per the BBC. Just 31 attempted to return to their home country in the decade that ended in 2022, according to the South's Unification Ministry. The man allegedly told police he'd been struggling in the South as a day laborer and had accumulated several unpaid fines. Little else is known about the man, other than that he was found not to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, per the Korea Times. Those convicted of trying to cross into North Korea illegally may be jailed for up to 10 years, per the BBC. (More defectors stories.)