Dramatic footage shows defector’s border dash
SEOUL: Dramatic footage of a North Korean soldier’s defection released on Wednesday showed him rac from former comrades, and then being hauled to safety by South Korean troops.
The footage also showed a - ing the border in hot pursuit US-led United Nations Command described as a serious breach of the 1953 ceasefire that ended Korean War hostilities.
The defector was shot at least four times in his desperate escape bid at the Panmunjom truce village on November 13, and has been recovering in a South Korean hospital.
It is very rare for the North’s troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major tourist attraction and the only part of the border where forces from the two sides come face-to-face.
The video released by the UNC began by showing the defector’s vehicle traveling at speed along an empty road leading to the truce village before stopping near the heavily armed border.
He then got out of the jeep and ran, pursued by North Korean soldiers with their weapons drawn
The footage then showed the badly injured man being pulled to safety by two South Korean soldiers who crawled to reach him just south of the dividing line.
UN Command spokesman Colonel Chad Carroll told journalists that one of the border guards ran across the military demarcation line for a “few seconds before returning back to the north side.”
An investigation found that the North Korean army violated weapons across the demarcation line and by actually crossing it.
The UNC has “requested a meeting [with North Korea] to discuss our investigation and
This screengrab made from video footage released by the United Nations Command on Wednesday shows a North Korea defector running out from a vehicle at the Joint Security Area of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). measures to prevent future such violations,” Carroll said.
‘Considerable courage’
South Korean and US service members on duty at the border did not their restraint in refraining from actions that could have unleashed cross-border hostilities.
They “demonstrated appropriate self-discipline and sound decisionmaking at a time when the situation on the ground was not nearly as clear as we can see now in the video,” he said.
The security forces “demonstrated considerable courage that day” and “deescalated this uncertain and ambiguous situation” at the border, he said.
Tensions between the US and North Korea are running high after a series of missile and nuclear tests aimed at deploying an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carry- ing a nuclear warhead to US cities.
The United States on Tuesday unveiled new sanctions targeting North Korean shipping and Chinese traders doing business with Pyongyang, again raising the pressure on the pariah state to abandon its nuclear program.
President Donald Trump said this in a series of moves over the next two weeks that will reinforce his “maximum pressure campaign” against Kim Jong-Un’s regime.
Defector conscious
The doctor who operated on the defector at a hospital south of Seoul said Wednesday he has regained consciousness but was depressed and would spend several more days in intensive care.
“As the patient is showing signs of depression due to intense psychological stress following two rounds of major surgeries, he will undergo tests for post-traumatic stress disorder,” Lee Cook-Jong told reporters.
“It’s not like the patient will open his eyes and walk out of the hospital after surgery as you see in movies,” he said.
However, Lee said he had been able to have extensive conversation with the North Korean man who had told him he defected to the South of his own free will.
“The reason that he defected, risking death and facing a barrage of gunshots, was because he had positive hopes about South Korea,” he said.
In addition to his gunshot injuries, the defector was found to be riddled with intestinal parasites, an apparent result of poor food hygiene in the impoverished North.
The Yonhap news agency on as saying that depending on medical advice, an interrogation team is expected to question the defector in
Lebanon’s prime minister Saad Hariri, back in Beirut for - day to explain his surprise decision and his extended stay in Saudi Arabia.
Hariri resigned in a televised address on November 4 from Saudi Arabia and then remained in Riyadh, where he spent two weeks before leaving for Paris.
His resignation shocked Lebanese, but Hariri’s prolonged stay in Saudi Arabia proved even more mysterious for many and sparked accusations that he was being held hostage in the kingdom.
He denied claims he was being detained, and promised to return to Lebanon in time to join Wednesday’s celebrations for Independence Day.
His plane touched down at Beirut airport shortly before he was expected to attend an Independence Day military parade before participating in the traditional reception at the presidential palace.
His Future Movement has called on supporters to gather at his home in downtown Beirut at 1 p.m. (1100 GMT).
He arrived in Beirut after stops in Cairo to see Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Cyprus, where he met President Nicos Anastasiades.
A dual Saudi citizen who has previously enjoyed Riyadh’s backing, Hariri resigned in a mysterious broadcast from the Saudi capital, accusing arch rival Iran and its powerful Lebanese ally Hezbollah of destabilizing his country.
But President Michel Aoun has yet to accept Hariri’s resignation, insisting that he present it in person once back in the Lebanese capital.
During Hariri’s two-week stay in Riyadh, Aoun accused Saudi authorities of holding him “hostage” and demanded that he enjoy freedom of movement.
47-year-old premier left Riyadh on Saturday.
He headed to Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron and pledged he would be home by Wednesday.
“As you know I have resigned, and we will discuss that in Lebanon,” he said.
Hariri’s resignation from outside the country is unprecedented in Lebanese history.
Questions remain over whether the resignation will stand, forcing negotiations on a new government, or if he might withdraw it.
Under Lebanon’s constitution, the president is bound to accept a premier’s resignation however it is tendered, Lebanese constitutional expert Edmond Rizk told Agence France-Presse.
Although it is not outlined in the constitution, Rizk said, custom dictates “this resignation is supposed to be submitted to the president.”