North Korean soldier crosses border to defect to South

By Jun Ji-hye

A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the mid-western border Thursday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS).

“A low-ranking soldier defected to our GP (guard post) across the mid-western border at 8:04 a.m.,” a JCS official said, asking not to be named.

The latest defection came about 40 days after another North Korean soldier fled to the South through the Joint Security Area (JSA) at the truce village of Panmunjeom.

The JCS said the GP occupants identified the soldier coming toward the South through surveillance equipment, adding that the soldier carried an AK-47 assault rifle.

“Relevant bodies will conduct an investigation into how and why the soldier defected to the South,” the official said.

No shots were exchanged between the two Koreas during the soldier’s defection; but South Korean troops fired 20 warning rounds from K-3 machine guns at 9:24 a.m. when North Korean border guards approached the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) while searching for the soldier who defected.

“The North’s border guards stopped approaching the MDL after our warning shots,” the official said.

At 10:13 a.m. and 10:16 a.m., shots were heard from the North, but there was no damage on the South Korean side, the official added.

“Since then, no unusual movements by North Korean border guards have been detected,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Unification said in a separate briefing that two North Korean men aboard a fishing boat defected to the South, Wednesday.

When the South Korean Navy found the boat in the East Sea, the North Koreans expressed their intent to defect, the ministry said.

“We need to conduct more investigations for details,” a ministry official said. “It is unclear when their boat left the North, but it is presumed to be quite a long time ago.”

The number of defections appears to have increased significantly this year as the military’s tally shows that 15 North Korean people, including four soldiers, have fled to the South, compared with five including one soldier last year.

The recent case that received the most attention was the Nov. 13 defection during which time the North Korean soldier suffered gunshot wounds while running across the MDL.

At the time, the JCS said around 40 shots were fired from the North at the defector.

The United Nations Command at the time said the (North) Korean People’s Army (KPA) violated the Armistice Agreement twice when its border security guards fired weapons across the MDL after the defector had entered the South and when one KPA soldier temporarily crossed the line for a few seconds.

The defector was in a critical condition but is recovering after undergoing two operations in the South.