A South Korean national has attempted to defect to North Korea after pleading to the rogue nation for protection in a rare reverse defection, according to the BBC. It is unclear whether the person is still alive since North Korea has a “shoot-on-sight” policy to stop people from breaching its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The individual was spotted in the DMZ, or Demilitarized Zone that separates the two nations, according to South Korean officials. In 2020, when a similar incident occurred, North Korean troops shot and burned a South Korean national who accidentally crossed the border by sea.