Warning shots fired after second North Korean soldier defects to the South in weeks

The demilitarized zone (DMZ) is a heavily-guarded strip between the two countries
AFP/Getty Images
Tom Powell21 December 2017

South Korea has fired warning shots at North Korean guards searching for their comrade who defected across the heavily armed border.

The soldier, believed to be low-ranking, fled across the border unscathed at 8.04 on Thursday morning (11.04pm GMT).

It comes almost 40 days after another North Korean solider crossed the jointly controlled demilitarized zone (DMZ) amid a barrage of bullets fired by comrades.

He was shot multiple times and remains in hospital in South Korea following two operations to extract bullets.

Seoul's Defence Ministry said there was no shoot-out when the latest North Korean soldier used a different section of the border to defect.

But later on Thursday, South Korea's military detected North Korean soldiers approaching a military demarcation line at the border before it broadcast a warning and fired 20 rounds of warning shots from machine guns.

The soldier, whose motive for defecting is under investigation, became the fourth to do so this year.

About 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea, mostly via China, since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Tensions run high on the Korean Peninsula as North Korea has been accelerating its weapons tests as part of its stated goal of achieving a nuclear missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Last month, North Korea test-fired its biggest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.

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