Hood time
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea on Sunday across the heavily fortified border between the two rivals, the South Korean military said.
The army detained the soldier who crossed the central part of the land border, according to a statement issued by the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff. The statement said that the soldier expressed his desire to settle in South Korea.
It was the first defection of a North Korean soldier since a North Korean sergeant fled to South Korea across the eastern part of the border in August 2024.
Although there are two border crossings, it is not common for North Koreans to defect across the land border.
Despite its official name, the Demilitarized Zone, the 248-kilometre (155 mi) long, four-kilometre (2.5 mi) wide border is protected by land mines, tank traps, barbed wire fences and combat troops. In 2017, when a fleeing North Korean soldier ran across the border, North Korean soldiers fired about 40 bullets before South Korean soldiers were able to pull the wounded soldier to safety.
The vast majority of the approximately 34,000 North Koreans who have fled to South Korea since the end of the Korean War (1950-1953) have done so through China, which shares a long, porous border with North Korea.
Relations between the two Koreas remain tense. North Korea has repeatedly rejected the overtures of South Korea’s progressive President Lee Jae-myung, who took office in June, pledging to restore reconciliation efforts between the two rivals.
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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative AI tool.
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