Troops crossed into South Korea in pursuit about an hour after the defection
By Andrew Jeong
North Korean soldiers crossed into South Korea early Thursday in pursuit of a comrade who had defected across the heavily guarded demilitarized zone about an hour earlier and were forced to turn back when South Korean guards fired warning shots, defense officials in Seoul said.
The junior ranking defector was detected by South Korean surveillance as he dashed across a northwestern portion of the DMZ about 8 a.m., a Defense Ministry spokesman told a news briefing.
North Korean soldiers were spotted about an hour later, seemingly tracking the defector, and crossed briefly into the South. In response, South Korean guards fired 20 warning shots, prompting the North Koreans to halt before returning to the northern side of the border, the ministry said.
Gunfire could be heard in the North another hour later, about 10 a.m., the ministry said. But South Korean authorities said they weren’t aware of any targets in the South coming under fire.
A spokesman for the U.S.-led United Nations Command in Seoul said that if the North Korean soldiers had crossed the military demarcation line, the de facto border, it would be a violation of the July 1953 armistice agreement between North Korea and the U.N.
The North Korean defector is in South Korean custody and an investigation is under way, the South’s defense officials said. They didn’t disclose whether the military, intelligence service or police were interviewing the defector, or whether he was injured. Details such as the soldier’s name and specific rank weren’t available, and there was no immediate reaction from North Korea through its state media.
The incident, the fourth defection of a North Korean soldier across the DMZ this year, comes as tensions remain high on the peninsula.
A dash across the heavily mined DMZ isn’t typically the method of choice for North Koreans seeking a way out of Kim Jong Un’s dictatorship. Most cross into China. From China, they often seek to cross into Mongolia or a Southeast Asian country, and then make themselves known to South Korean officials, who arrange their transit to South Korea.
full story at https://www.wsj.com/articles/another-north-korean-soldier-makes-a-mad-dash-across-the-dmz-1513820797