North Korea on Tuesday repatriated a South Korean national in a handover at the truce village of Panmunjom, the ROK Ministry of Unification (MOU) announced.
The 60-year old male — whose surname has been revealed to be Pyo — was returned by the DPRK side at 1600 local time.
The North notified the South of the planned return Tuesday morning through the inter-Korean liaison office located at now-shuttered Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC).
The DPRK side reportedly said the South Korean man had “illegally entered” the country in September.
He is now under investigation by South Korean authorities, though the unification ministry is yet to share any details on how he entered the DPRK or his motive.
“The government positively assessed that the North Korean side returned our citizen on humanitarian grounds,” the ministry said in a written statement.
This is not the first time this year that the North has repatriated a South Korean national accused of illegally entering its territory.
August saw Pyongyang repatriate a South Korean male who had illegally entered North Korean territory the previous month.
The DPRK state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) later reported the country had returned the trespasser on “the principle of humanitarianism.”
That same month, KCNA also announced the release of a Japanese man, who had reportedly visited the country as a tourist and had been investigated by relevant organizations over “his crime against the law of the DPRK.”
Between 2012 and 2017, the North repatriated a total of 13 South Korean nationals seven times.
Six, two, and five ROK citizens who had entered the DPRK were repatriated in 2013, 2014, and 2015 respectively, the unification ministry has said, with the figures include the return of one dead body.
In June 2015, a 59-year-old man and a 51-year-old woman who were alleged by Pyongyang to have made an illegal crossing along the Chinese border were returned via Panmunjom after a nearly-one-month-long detention.
In October 2015, the DPRK returned South Korean citizen Joo Won-moon to the South via Panmunjom.
Joo, then a New York University student and New Jersey resident, was arrested for entering the country via the Yalu River near Dandong in April that year.
Six South Korean nationals, including Christian missionaries Kim Jung Wook, Kim Kook Kie, Choi Chun Kil, and Ko Hyon Chol, remain detained in the North, however.
The other two ROK nationals in captivity are believed to be defectors, though DPRK state media is yet to release any information about their identity.
A news conference following high-level talks held in June saw South Korean unification minister Cho Myoung-gyon say the North’s relevant agencies have been reviewing the issue.
There has been no update from Pyongyang since then, however.
Following inter-Korean high-level talks in August, Cho told a press briefing that North Korean officials had not made reference to the six South Korean detainees, adding he believed that the North would notify Seoul “in an appropriate manner” when finishing its review.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in also reportedly called for the “swift repatriation” of the six ROK nationals during his first meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in April.