North Korean soldier, shot and wounded, defects to South

By Hyonhee Shin

 

SEOUL (Reuters) - A North Korean soldier defected to the South on Monday after being shot and wounded by the North Korean military, South Korea said.

 

The soldier was found on the south side of the border village of Panmunjom, about 50 metres south of the Military Demarcation Line, wounded in his shoulder and elbow, according to a South Korean defence ministry official.

 

He defected from a North Korean guard post nearby and was being treated in hospital.

 

"The defector was urgently transferred to hospital in a helicopter of the United Nations Command, and there was no exchange of fire with our side," the ministry official told Reuters.

 

"Since it was an area exposed to the North, we had to crawl toward there to get him out," the official added.

 

There was no immediate comment on the incident from North Korea.

 

While on average more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to South Korea every year, most travel via China and it is unusual for a North Korean to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas, which have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

 

The last such crossing was in June.

 

The South Korean ministry official said the soldier's condition and military rank remained to be verified.

 

The defection comes amid tension between the two Koreas, and between the United States and the North.

 

North Korea has this year been boosting its nuclear and missile capacity with a series of tests as it faces off with U.S. President Donald Trump who has vowed to stop it from being able to hit the mainland United States with a nuclear weapon.

 

North Korea conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear bomb test on Sept. 3, but has not launched any missiles since firing one over Japan on Sept. 15, the longest such lull this year.

 

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Nick Macfie, Robert Birsel)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-11-14

8 hours ago, webfact said:

A North Korean soldier defected to the South

Fearing North Korea will soon become a wasteland from war?

He is more than likely a spy.

 

his family, friends, and anyone he was remotely close with in North Korea is more than likely in for a world of pain if he isn't a spy.

 

(Some news outlets are reporting he died at a hospital... Wonder if he is actually dead or reporting he is dead so that North korea thinks he is dead)

 

Edited November 14, 20178 yr by speckio

40 minutes ago, speckio said:

He is more than likely a spy.

My first thought on reading this story; give him a couple of non-fatal wounds, throw him out into no-man's land loaded with false info. .

Doubt that he is a spy.  Seems that a guard would have little of value in intelligence.  Spreading false intelligence for the North would probably get him in trouble and the South Korean military certainly isn't going to reveal anything to him.  He took a big risk to be free of the society in the North.  Pretty damn brave OR desperate in my book.

7 minutes ago, Trouble said:

Doubt that he is a spy.  Seems that a guard would have little of value in intelligence.  Spreading false intelligence for the North would probably get him in trouble and the South Korean military certainly isn't going to reveal anything to him.  He took a big risk to be free of the society in the North.  Pretty damn brave OR desperate in my book.

Think about it... Would that not make him a great spy? Who says he would be planted to uncover the secret workings of South Korea's military?