A North Korean border guard recently shot and killed a defector while trying to escape near the border with China, an activist in Seoul said.

The incident is seen as part of a crackdown on the increasing number of residents risking their lives to flee the impoverished state.

Kim Yong-hwa, chairman of the North Korea Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea, said he saw a defector shot dead by a North Korean border guard shortly after he crossed the river border and stepped on Chinese soil.

“I accidentally witnessed the scene on Oct. 22 near the Amnok River while gathering news material around the border area,” Kim said, adding that the incident was recorded on a guide’s mobile phone.

The Amnok River, located near Hyesan in the northern province of Yanggang, separates the two communist allies. The border areas have served as key routes via which North Koreans continue to flee to China for eventual defection to South Korea.

“Five Chinese guards approached the scene after the sound of shooting and surrounded the defector to block the view,” Kim added. “The guards left the injured male dead about 30 minutes after he was shot.”

Until now, North Korean soldiers have only shot people crossing the heavily fortified border with South Korea and not those fleeing to China. The regime, however, has toughened its crackdown on defection, branding “anyone leaving the country as a traitor” regardless of the location, sources close to Pyongyang say.

Despite the harsh punishment for defection, a growing number of North Koreans ― especially young adults in their 20s and 30s ― have been fleeing to the capitalist South mostly via China, indicating the deepening food shortages and instability in the communist state.

Pyongyang has recently tightened security around its border with China, reinforcing guard posts and rewarding soldiers who shoot those caught crossing the river to leave the country, sources close to North Korea say.

China has also been reinforcing metal fences near the border with barbed wire and providing Pyongyang with cell phone radio-locators, surveillance cameras and other devices to help keep track of those attempting to flee, according to the sources.

By Shin Hae-in (hayney@heraldcorp.com)