North Korean soldier defects to South Korea across the rivals’ heavily fortified border
North Korean soldier defected to South Korea despite rivalries heavily fortified border Sunday, the South Korean military said.
The military arrested the soldier who crossed the central part of the land border, South Korea» the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement. The soldier reportedly expressed a desire to resettle in South Korea.
This is the first reported defection of a North Korean soldier since a North Korean staff sergeant fled to South Korea via the eastern part of the border in August 2024.
Despite the two border crossings, it is not common for North Koreans to defect via the land border.
Contrary to its official name, the demilitarized zone, the 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) wide border is guarded by land mines, tank traps, barbed wire and combat troops. Satellite images from last year show North Korea began building what appear to be sections of wall near its border with South Korea.
In 2017, when a fleeing North Korean soldier ran across the border, North Korean soldiers fired about 40 rounds before South Korean soldiers could carry the injured soldier to safety.
The vast majority of the 34,000 North Koreans who have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953) have passed through China, which shares a long and porous border with North Korea.
Relations between the two Koreas remain tense, with North Korea repeatedly rejecting the efforts of liberal South Korean President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June with a promise to restore reconciliation between the rivals.
Earlier this monthNorth Korean leader Kim Jong Un deployed its military’s most powerful nuclear weapons in a massive military parade attended by foreign leaders.
Joined by senior Chinese, Vietnamese and Russian officials on a podium, Kim said in a speech that his military “should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats” but made no direct mention of the United States or South Korea.
