TENSE MOMENTS OF DEFECTION REVEALED

North Korean soldier crossed border while chasing, shooting comrade

(From top to bottom) The defector driving along a road leading to the truce village of Panmunjom; North Korean soldiers at the truce village reacting to the defection; the defector running out of his vehicle at the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarised Zone; North Korean soldiers shooting at the defector; a North Korean soldier running across the demarcation line in pursuit of the defector; and the defector collapsing on the ground after being shot.

SEOUL

NORTH Korean border guards were steps behind a fellow North Korean soldier when they opened fire and one briefly crossed the border to pursue the wounded defector as he dashed to the South Korean side, a video released yesterday by the United Nations Command (UNC) here showed.

The defector was critically wounded, having been hit at least four times in the hail of bullets as he made his escape on Nov 13. He was flown by a United States military helicopter to a hospital in Suwon, south of here.

Doctors yesterday said he had regained consciousness, having had two operations to extract the bullets, and his breathing was stable and unassisted.

“He is fine,” lead surgeon Dr Lee Cook-jong said at a press conference in Suwon.

“He is not going to die.”

The UNC official said a soldier from the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) had crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the border between the two Koreas, for a few seconds as others fired shots at the defecting soldier.

“The key findings of the special investigation team are that the KPA violated the armistice agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily,” UNC director of public affairs Chad Carroll said.

The dramatic video begins with a lone 4x4 army jeep speeding along empty, tree-lined roads toward the border.

At one checkpoint, a North Korean guard marched impassively towards the approaching vehicle, but then ran in pursuit as it raced by.

After passing a memorial for North Korea founder Kim Il-sung, where tourists often gathered for tours of the Joint Security Area inside the demilitarised zone, the The North Korean defector (left) being pulled to safety by two South Korean soldiers. jeep ran into a ditch just metres from the border with the South.

For several minutes, the driver tried to free the vehicle, but the wheels spun uselessly.

The driver finally abandoned the vehicle and sprinted for his life, pushing tree branches out of his way and sending leaves flying.

He scrambled up the slightly rising ground to cross the border just seconds before at least four of the guards appeared, their guns blazing as they ran.

One pursuing guard slided into a pile of dead leaves to open fire before running forward and appearing to briefly cross the dividing line between the two countries before turning around.

The video did not show the moment when the defector was hit, but he was seen lying motionless in a pile of leaves next to a concrete wall in one of the later-edited clips in the video. Reuters