In a rare event, a North Korean soldier defected to South Korea by crossing the heavily fortified border on Sunday, according to South Korea’s military. The Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed that the soldier, who traversed the central portion of the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), expressed a strong desire to resettle in South Korea. This marks the first reported defection via the land border since August 2024, when a North Korean staff sergeant fled through the eastern section. Despite these incidents, defections across the DMZ remain uncommon due to its extreme security measures, including land mines, tank traps, barbed wire fences, and combat troops. In 2017, a similar attempt resulted in North Korean soldiers firing approximately 40 rounds at a fleeing soldier before South Korean forces could rescue him. The vast majority of the 34,000 North Koreans who have defected to South Korea since the Korean War have done so via China, which shares a porous border with North Korea. Relations between the two Koreas remain tense, with North Korea consistently rejecting reconciliation efforts by South Korea’s President Lee Jae Myung, who assumed office in June with a pledge to restore dialogue.
North Korean soldier defects to South Korea across the rivals’ heavily fortified border
