Politics
09:36, 21-Dec-2017
DPRK soldier defects to ROK
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A "low-ranking" soldier of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) defected to the Republic of Korea (ROK) through the land border Thursday, a South Korean defense ministry official said.
The soldier defected at around 8:04 a.m. local time and no shots were fired at the time, the official said. But later ROK forces fired around 20 warning shots at DPRK border guards who were searching for the defector, reported Yonhap news agency.
Thursday's defection was the fourth by a soldier this year across the demilitarized zone that divides the peninsula.
The barbed-wire fence is seen on the demilitarized zone separating DPRK from ROK. /AFP Photo
The barbed-wire fence is seen on the demilitarized zone separating DPRK from ROK. /AFP Photo
A defection last month at the border truce village of Panmunjom saw DPRK troops firing across the frontier.
On that occasion the defector drove to the heavily-guarded border at speed and ran across under a hail of bullets from his own side. He was hit at least four times.
Footage showed the badly injured man being pulled to safety by two ROK soldiers who crawled to reach him just south of the demarcation line.
He has been recovering in an ROK hospital.