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North Korean soldier shot by his own troops as he tries to flee border and defect to the South

<em>The soldier fled through the heavily armed border between North and South Korea (AP)</em>
The soldier fled through the heavily armed border between North and South Korea (AP)

A North Korean defector has been shot and wounded by his own side after he tried to cross the heavily guarded border into the South.

The soldier bolted from a guard post at the northern side of Panmunjom village in the Joint Security Area to the southern side of the village, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

He was shot in the shoulder and elbow and was taken to a South Korean hospital, the Defence Ministry said.

<em>A South Korean army soldier (second from left) is seen as medical members treat the North Korean soldier (AP)</em>
A South Korean army soldier (second from left) is seen as medical members treat the North Korean soldier (AP)

It was not immediately known how serious the soldier’s injuries were or why he decided to defect.

South Korean troops found the injured soldier south of the border after hearing sounds of gunfire, a Defence Ministry official said.

He added that South Korean troops did not fire at the North.

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Soldiers from the North have occasionally defected to South Korea across the border but it is rare for a North Korean soldier to defect via the Joint Security Area, where border guards of the rival Koreas stand facing each other just metres apart, and be shot by fellow North Korean soldiers.

The defection came at a time of heightened tension over North Korea’s nuclear weapons programme, and could escalate animosities between the rival countries.

North Korea has typically accused South Korea of enticing its citizens to defect, something the South denies.

<em>The seriousness of the soldier’s injuries were not immediately known (AP)</em>
The seriousness of the soldier’s injuries were not immediately known (AP)

About 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, with most travel through China.

Panmunjom, once an obscure farming village inside the four kilometre-wide Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas, is where an armistice was signed to pause the Korean War.

The DMZ is jointly controlled by the American-led UN Command and North Korea, and is guarded on both sides by hundreds of thousands of combat-ready troops, razor-wire fences and tank traps.