Police in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, apprehended a North Korean defector who allegedly stole a village bus and attempted to drive it northward through the militarized border between North and South Korea in an apparent effort to return to North Korea. The man, in his 30s, was caught at the Unification Bridge after the bus he was driving collided with a road blocker on the heavily guarded bridge leading to the truce village Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. Despite warnings from soldiers to stop, the man continued driving towards the north. The defector, who had settled in South Korea over a decade ago and currently resides in Seoul, reportedly expressed difficulties with life in South Korea during a police interrogation. Crossing the border without government authorization is considered a criminal offense under the National Security Act. The incident sheds light on the declining trend of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea, with only 196 defectors in 2023 and 105 in the first half of the following year. Conversely, the number of defectors returning to North Korea totaled 31 from 2012 to 2022, as reported by the Unification Ministry.