Jump to freedom: a gymnast from North Korea jumped over a three-meter fence in South Korea

It is difficult to find a more secure border in the world than the border of North and South Korea. But despite the measures taken on both sides, unauthorized border crossings happen. There are also quite unique cases, like the one that occurred in early November. A 20-year-old North Korean boy jumped over a fence with barbed wire and sensors and asked for political asylum in South Korea.

The land border between the two Koreas is more than 260 km long, but violators very rarely try to cross it because of the determined border guards on both sides and the abundance of electronic sensors and cameras. Most often, they flee from the regime of Kim Jong-un in two stages-first to China, and then to South Korea.

But desperate people can try their luck directly, like the young gymnast arrested on November 2 south of the demilitarized zone between the two countries. A young man in blue civilian clothes was loitering in the woods when he was detained by border guards. The strange guy did not have any things with him, and he claimed that he jumped from the DPRK to South Korea over a three-meter fence, using a pole for this.

Of course, the stranger was not believed and even forced to jump with a pole over various obstacles several times to convict him of lying. But the fugitive easily performed dizzying jumps, proving his words in practice.

When examining the impregnable fence of the state border, the responsible persons found the place of the "jump to freedom", which was given out by a slightly crushed wire and shreds of clothes caught on it. During the interrogation, the offender said that for many years he was engaged in gymnastics, which helped him to perform a dangerous trick.

Immediately, the border guards and the special services of South Korea had another question — why did not the most vaunted sensors work, which even a mouse does not slip past. The treacherous trespass occurred in a well-equipped area, but no devices detected anything unusual, although the jumper touched them.

It is worth mentioning that on the other side, in North Korea, they are no less interested in stopping border crossings. The border guards of the DPRK do not rely on sensors and thermal imagers and simply shoot to kill all living things near the border.