Yahoo News North Korea 'replaces' border guards after soldier's defection
North Korea has reportedly replaced all its border guards at the frontier it shares with South Korea after one of their colleagues defected earlier month.
The guards may have been punished for their failure to stop the guard rushing over the border, a report from the South Korean Yonhap News Agency claims.
The soldier sprinted across the Joint Security Area in the demilitarized zone (DMZ), despite it being one of the most heavily-guarded strips of land in the world.
‘Signs were detected that North Korea has replaced all border security officials following the defection,’ Yonhap said, quoting a source.
‘Given this situation, commanders of the responsible military unit and senior officers might have undergone punishment.’
Footage of the incident released earlier this month shows the defecting North Korean speeding to the border in a military jeep.
Four of his colleagues open fire on him and he was shot five times by his former comrades. It is thought at least 40 shots were fired at the North Korean.
He crashed the jeep, and was then dragged across the border by South Korean soldiers, with the help of three Americans.
Most popular on Yahoo News UK
Mysterious booms are being heard around the world – and experts are baffled
Photo bought for £7 at flea market ‘shows Billy the Kid and could be worth millions’
Woman raises over $100,000 for homeless veteran who gave her his last $20 when she was stranded
Shop worker turns tables on knife-wielding robber by flashing her own blade
Notorious MS-13 gang decapitates man and cuts out his heart in Maryland
The defector survived and was later taken to hospital.
The US, which is currently engaged in a war of words with the secretive state in Pyongyang, claimed that in their desperate attempts to stop the soldier defecting, North Korean troops had violated the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
North Korean soldiers fired across and physically crossed the border in pursuit of the soldier, said US Colonel Chad G Carroll.
