North Korean soldier defects to South Korea across heavily fortified border

A North Korean soldier crossed into South Korea on Sunday in a rare defection across the countries’ heavily fortified border, the South Korean military said.

According to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the soldier traversed the central section of the land border and was taken into custody after expressing a desire to resettle in the South.

It marks the first reported defection by a North Korean soldier since August 2024, when a staff sergeant fled across the eastern part of the frontier. Such crossings remain uncommon due to the high level of security along the boundary.

The border, formally called the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), spans 248 kilometres (155 miles) in length and 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) in width. Despite its name, it is heavily guarded with land mines, tank traps, barbed wire, and combat troops. In 2017, a North Korean soldier attempting to escape was shot about 40 times by his comrades before South Korean forces managed to rescue him.

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A vast majority of about 34,000 North Koreans who have fled to South Korea since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War came via China, which shares a long, porous border with North Korea.

Relations between the two Koreas remain strained, with North Korea repeatedly rejecting outreach by South Korea’s liberal President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June with a vow to restore reconciliation between the rivals.

With inputs from agencies