A barbed wire fence at a military check point connecting South and North Korea at the Unification Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province in South Korea. (GettyImages)

Police said Tuesday they had nabbed a North Korean defector for allegedly stealing a village bus in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, and attempting to ram the bus northward through the militarized border between the two Koreas, in an apparent bid to return to North Korea.

Police in Paju caught a man in his 30s at the Unification Bridge on Tuesday at around 1:30 a.m., as the bus he was driving hit a road blocker on the Imjin River's heavily guarded bridge that leads to the truce village Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone. According to police, the man did not follow soldiers' instructions from guard posts to stop driving northbound.

The man reportedly took the village bus from a bus depot in Paju at around 1 a.m. Tuesday, as the key had been left in the ignition.

Only authorized personnel granted the Unification Ministry's permission, or residents in villages just outside of the DMZ like Tongil Chon, can cross the Unification Bridge.

The man was reportedly identified as a North Korean defector who settled in South Korea more than a decade ago and currently lives in the Sillim-dong neighborhood of Gwanak-gu, southern Seoul. Further identifying details have yet to be disclosed.

He reportedly said during a police investigation that life in South Korea was difficult.

A South Korean citizen crossing the border between the two Koreas without government authorization is deemed a criminal act under the National Security Act.

Meanwhile, the number of North Korean defectors arriving in South Korea has been on a gradual decline.

The number was within the range of 2,000-3,000 each year from 2006 to 2011, and decreased to 1,000-1,600 from 2012 to 2019. Even after the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of defectors to Korea stood at just 196 in 2023 and 105 in the first half of this year.

On the other hand, the number of North Korean defectors returning to North Korea came to 31 in total from 2012 to 2022, according to the Unification Ministry in a parliamentary audit.