A former North Korean soldier who spent over four decades imprisoned in South Korea failed to return to the DPRK on Wednesday after the military blocked his attempt to cross via a border bridge.

Ahn Hak-sop, a 95-year-old unconverted prisoner of war (POW), announced at a press conference last week that he would return to the North even without Seoul’s approval, calling the South a “U.S. colony” and stating that he does not want to be buried in an occupied country.