A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea across the rivals’ heavily fortified border on Sunday, South Korea’s military said.
The military took custody of the soldier who crossed the central portion of the land border, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.
It was the first reported defection by a North Korean soldier since a North Korean staff sergeant fled to South Korea via the border’s eastern section in August 2024.
Satellite imagery from last year shows North Korea had started construction on what appears to be tranches of wall near its border with South Korea.
In 2017, when a fleeing North Korean soldier sprinted across the border, North Korean soldiers fired about 40 rounds before South Korean soldiers could drag the wounded soldier to safety.
South Korea’s military reported that a North Korean soldier crossed the rivals’ heavily guarded border and defected to South Korea on Sunday.
According to a statement from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the soldier who crossed the central section of the land border was taken into custody by the military. According to the report, the soldier indicated a wish to relocate to South Korea.
It was the first documented defection by a North Korean soldier since August 2024, when a North Korean staff sergeant crossed the eastern border to South Korea.
Although there are two border crossings, North Koreans rarely defect across the land border.
In contrast to its official name, the Demilitarized Zone, the border is protected by combat troops, barbed wire fences, tank traps, and land mines. It is 248 kilometers (155 miles) long and 4 kilometers (2.5% miles) wide. According to satellite imagery taken last year, North Korea had begun building what appeared to be wall segments close to its border with South Korea.
When a North Korean soldier ran across the border in 2017 in pursuit of safety, North Korean soldiers fired approximately 40 rounds before South Korean soldiers could pull the injured soldier to safety.
Since the end of the 1950–53 Korean War, the vast majority of the approximately 34,000 North Koreans who have fled to South Korea have done so via China, which shares a lengthy, porous border with North Korea.
The liberal president of South Korea, Lee Jae Myung, took office in June with a promise to bring the rivals back together, but North Korea has consistently rejected his outreach, causing tensions to persist between the two Koreas.
At a huge military parade earlier this month that was witnessed by international leaders, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un unveiled his nuclear-armed military’s most potent weaponry.
At a podium, flanked by senior Chinese, Vietnamese, and Russian officials, Kim stated that his military “should continue to grow into an invincible entity that destroys all threats,” without specifically mentioning South Korea or the US.
