Second North Korean Soldier Defects Across DMZ In 5 Weeks

A “junior ranking” North Korean soldier defected to South Korea on Thursday across the demilitarized zone (DMZ), the Southern Military officials said. He is the fourth North Korean soldiers to defect this year and the second in five weeks.

According to a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) official, the soldier appeared in front of a checkpoint on the mid-western front after 8 a.m. local time (6 p.m. EST on Wednesday) amid thick fog, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The report added border guards from the North approached the military demarcation line in search of the defector, due to which soldiers from the South fire about 20 warning shots, the JCS official said. About 40 minutes later, several gunshot sounds were heard from the North but none of the bullets crossed the border, the official added.

The soldier defected along the border of Gangwon province, BBC reported. He was taken into custody and authorities were investigating his motivation.

North Korean defectors do not generally take the risk of crossing via DMZ as it is one of the heavily guarded strips of land in the world. But, this is the second defection in five weeks to happen through the DMZ. On Nov. 13, a soldier drove a jeep up to the border and then ran across to the South as Northern troops shot at him. The soldier finally collapsed in a pile of leaves, from where Southern soldiers dragged him to safety. The defector, who was identified as Oh, is currently recovering.

Oh defected through the Joint Security Area in the DMZ which is the only part of the inter-Korean border where the troops from both the countries stand face-to-face.

DMZ is a heavily fortified strip of land, with rows of surveillance cameras and electric fencing. It is 155 miles long and 2.5 miles wide and runs across the Korean Peninsula. Yonhap reported 780 people defected from North to South from January to August 2017. But only a few chose this heavily guarded route to defect.

The recent defections show that it is possible to cross the DMZ to the South, but the number of unsuccessful attempts remains unknown, BBC reported.

If North Korean soldiers detect any spot movements across this area, there are most likely to open fire. And if the defectors are arrested trying to cross the DMZ, they would be taken to a detention center to be interrogated.

The DMZ came into existence after the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953. Reports claimed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered tightening border controls and also laying more landmines, in an attempt to prevent defection and any intrusions.

United States diplomat to South Korea, Marc Knapper, tweeted a picture Nov. 23 which showed workers digging a trench in what seemed to be an effort to fortifying the border in the DMZ.

Yonhap reported South Korea’s unification ministry, in a separate announcement Thursday, said two North Koreans were found on a fishing boat in South’s waters. They had apparently defected.