Q&A on the News

Q: What happened to the North Korean soldier nearly killed by his own soldiers at the Panmunjom gate, then dragged into South Korea after dark? — JIM DORIN, STONE MOUNTAIN

A: The soldier, Oh Chongsong, was still receiving treatment in Seoul for his wounds in late 2018, according to a November Washington Post story that cited Oh’s interview with Sankei Shimbun, a Japanese newspaper.

Oh, who was 25 when he was shot five times in November 2017, was treated by Lee Cook-jong at the Ajou University trauma center in Suwon, near Seoul, according to various media reports.

“South Koreans were so gripped by Oh’s case that the trauma surgeon who treated him, Lee Cook-jong, became a celebrity in the country. Oh told the Sankei Shimbun that he was discharged from the hospital in February but still commutes from the suburbs of Seoul to the city center for continued treatment,” according to the Post story.

Video footage showed him running and collapsing across the border at Pan- munjom. He was flown via helicopter by U.S. and South Korean soldiers to the trauma center in the Gyeonggi province of South Korea, according to various media reports.

Seoul’s Unification Ministry would not confirm whether Oh had gone to Japan, according to a report from Chosun Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper cited by the Post.