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A North Korean defector was picked up in Goseong, South Korea, Feb. 16, 2021, after reportedly entering the country through an unguarded drainpipe.

A North Korean defector was picked up in Goseong, South Korea, Feb. 16, 2021, after reportedly entering the country through an unguarded drainpipe. (Robert H. Reid/Stars and Stripes)

South Korean troops failed to spot a North Korea man captured on surveillance cameras last week after he swam ashore and entered the country through an unguarded drainpipe, according to a report in local media Tuesday.

The man, who swam the East Sea in a diving suit early Feb. 16, was missed eight of 10 times he showed up on military cameras on the south side of the Demilitarized Zone, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

The report cited a weeklong investigation and a briefing Tuesday by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. A spokesman for the Joint Chiefs declined to provide Stars and Stripes with a transcript of the briefing.

After his capture, the man told South Korean authorities he wanted to defect, according to Yonhap. He swam to an observatory on the east coast and at 1:05 a.m. passed through the drainage pipe beneath barbed wire along the shore.

Cameras detected his presence five times between his arrival on shore and 1:38 a.m., according to the report. Two alarms sounded but no actions were taken.

The pipe’s existence, and two others, were unknown to the military prior to the incident, Yonhap reported.

Cameras caught the man three more times around 4 a.m., but no alarm sounded, and he continued south.

He went undetected until 4:16 a.m. when guards spotted him on a surveillance camera and started a search. He was taken into custody three hours later inside the civilian control line in a zone controlled by the military.

He was picked up near the town of Goseong, according to previous reports.

“Service members in charge of the guard duty failed to abide by due procedures and failed to detect the unidentified man,” the Joint Chiefs said.

The Joint Chiefs vowed to tighten troop discipline and improve the border surveillance system, according to Yonhap.

ditzler.joseph@stripes.com Twitter: @JosephDitzler

chang.kyong@stripes.com

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Joseph Ditzler is a Marine Corps veteran and the Pacific editor for Stars and Stripes. He’s a native of Pennsylvania and has written for newspapers and websites in Alaska, California, Florida, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He studied journalism at Penn State and international relations at the University of Oklahoma.
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Yoo Kyong Chang is a reporter/translator covering the U.S. military from Camp Humphreys, South Korea. She graduated from Korea University and also studied at the University of Akron in Ohio.

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