Facing a sexual assault investigation, defector at heart of COVID-19 case evaded high-tech South Korean border control systems by crawling through a drain pipe and swimming across the Han River to North Korea by HeeShin sangmi_cha joshjonsmith
FILE PHOTO: Kaesong city is seen across the demilitarised zone separating North Korea from South Korea in this picture taken from Dora observatory in Paju, 55 km north of Seoul, September 25, 2013. REUTERS/Lee Jae-Won
South Korean military chief Park Han-ki told parliament on Tuesday that Kim, who is 163 cm tall and weighs 54 kg , cut his way through barbed wire fences installed at the end of the pipe leading to the river. When that industrial project was shut down amid rising tensions over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme in 2016, the economic shock prompted Kim to try his luck in the South in 2017, he said in a YouTube video filmed with a fellow defector in South Korea in June.
He started swimming, following the lights on the southern bank of the river. When he finally made land, he let out a cry for help, and was found by a unit of South Korean soldiers. According to police, a female defector in her 20s filed a complaint on June 12, accusing Kim of sexually assaulting her at his home. They interviewed him once on June 21, and he denied the accusations.
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