N. Korean soldier defects across DMZ

(MENAFN- Arab News) SEOUL: A teenaged North Korean soldier walked across the world's most heavily militarised border on Monday in a bid to defect to South Korea South Korean Defense Ministry officials said.
While there are more than a thousand defections from North Korea to South Korea every year most defectors come via China and it is rare for a North Korean to crossing the heavily mined Demilitarised Zone (DMZ). The last such crossing was in 2012.
The soldier approached a remote South Korean guard post in Gangwon province's Hwacheon county in the central area of the peninsula at about 8 a.m. on Monday one Defense Ministry official said. There was no exchange of fire or warning shots as the soldier clearly expressed his desire to defect the official said. The soldier was being held in custody while officials ran checks.
Stretching across the Korean peninsula the DMZ is 4 km (2.5 miles) wide and is fortified with land mines and barbed wire. There are telephones on the South Korean side for defectors from the North to call seeking help.
Yonhap News Agency reported that the North Korean military had been laying land mines along parts of the border this year in an apparent move to prevent defections citing a South Korean government official.