A North Korean defector living in South Korea was detained on Tuesday after ramming a stolen bus into a barricade on a bridge near the heavily militarized border, in an apparent attempt to get back to the North, Yonhap news agency reported.
The incident took place at around 1:30 a.m. (16:30 GMT on Monday) at the Tongil Bridge in Paju, northwest of the capital Seoul, after the man ignored warnings from soldiers guarding the bridge and attempted to drive through, Yonhap said, citing city police.
Paju police referred queries on the incident to provincial police authorities. The northern Gyeonggi police agency could not be reached for comment.
The man aged in his 30s who had defected more than a decade ago told police that he was trying to return to North Korea after struggling to settle in the South, the report said.
In South Korea? Nothing. But when you’ve been effectively institutionalized your entire life, adapting to a significantly freer society can be difficult or impossible.
Yeah, I bet he tried to run back because he was too free.
This is a well known issue with refugees of hyper-authoritarian places. NK refugees discuss this a lot. Like the other person said, this is a well known phenomenon with freed prisoners, too. Basically you spent so much time conforming to a very, very, specific way of living, that you are stuck in that mind frame. Without a lot of therapy you are likely to be unable to adjust. Just like people who have been in abusive households their whole lives, yet return to them, because they can’t function, when they are in a freer circumstance.
This well understood issue.
Basically, yeah. Like I said, integration into society is difficult if you’ve been institutionalized. Going from a highly controlled and regimented life to one where you have to do everything yourself is difficult. I’m not surprised that some people reject it. We see the same thing when people get out of long prison terms.