South Korea Police Arrests Defector Trying to Cross back to North Korea

South Korean police said they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea. (Reuters file photo)
South Korean police said they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea. (Reuters file photo)
TT

South Korea Police Arrests Defector Trying to Cross back to North Korea

South Korean police said they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea. (Reuters file photo)
South Korean police said they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea. (Reuters file photo)

South Korean police said on Sunday they had arrested a defector who tried to return to North Korea after a similar, successful crossing in July escalated tensions on the peninsula.

The defector, who had fled to South Korea in 2018, was suspected of breaking into a military training site in South Korea’s border town of Cheorwon on Thursday to head back to North Korea.

“The man is under police investigation. We are looking into details such as why he tried to cross the border,” a policewoman said by telephone. She said she could not confirm the date of the arrest.

In July, a 24-year-old defector returned to North Korea the way he left in 2017, going through a drainage ditch and swimming across the Han River to the North.

When the 24-year-old defector illegally returned to North Korea in July, the “runaway” prompted the government to launch an investigation into the military unit responsible for the crossing.



Russia Launches New Year Drone Strike on Kyiv

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
TT

Russia Launches New Year Drone Strike on Kyiv

A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT
A handout photo made available by the State Emergency Service shows Ukrainian rescuers working at the site of a drone attack on a residential building in Kyiv, Ukraine, 01 January 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. EPA/STATE EMERGENCY SERVICE HANDOUT

Russia launched a drone strike on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Wednesday, wounding at least three people and damaging buildings in two districts, city officials said.

Explosions boomed across the morning sky shortly after Ukraine's air force warned of drones approaching the city.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said air-defenses were repelling an enemy attack, and that two floors of a residential building had been partially destroyed in the strike.

Debris had also damaged a non-residential premise in another neighborhood, he said.

Russia has carried out regular airstrikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front line of its nearly three-year-old invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said late on Tuesday that no one would give peace to his country as a gift, but he believed the United States would stand alongside Kyiv.

Zelenskiy, in a slick 21-minute New Year video greeting to his compatriots, also said only a strong Ukraine could secure peace and earn worldwide respect.

"We know that peace will not be given to us as a gift, but we will do everything to stop Russia and end the war, something each of us desires," Zelenskiy said against a backdrop of the blue-and-yellow national flag, battlefield scenes and pictures of children.
He recalled conversations with outgoing US President Joe Biden, President-elect Donald Trump and "everyone who supports us in the United States.”

"I have no doubt that the new American president wants and will be able to bring peace and end (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's aggression," Zelenskiy said.
"He understands that the former is impossible without the latter. Because this is not a street brawl where the two sides need to be pacified. This is a full-scale aggression by a deranged state against a civilized one. And I believe that, together with the United States, we are capable of the strength to force Russia into a just peace."
Russia, Zelenskiy said, was not to be trusted either in battle or in talks.
"If today Russia shakes your hand, it doesn't mean that tomorrow the same hand will not start killing you," he said. "Russians fear those who are free. What they don't understand. They fear freedom."