A North Korean soldier hurriedly retreats after realizing that he crossed an imaginary borderline. [The United Nations Command (UNC)]
The United Nations Command (UNC) accused North Korea of violating an armistice accord clearly when its border guards fired shots to stop the defection of a soldier through a jointly guarded truce village in the middle of the heavily armed border.
The defection on November 13 prompted North Korean border guards to fire about 40 shots, creating a dangerous situation in Panmunjom, the only inter-Korean contact point inside the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) which bisects the Korean peninsula.
Security camera footages released by the U.S.-led UNC showed a jeep speeding toward a borderline before its wheel came loose. Then the defector got off and ran, chased by four North Korean soldiers carrying guns and rifles. Three South Korean officers were seen crawling later to rescue him.
The area has been guarded jointly by North Korea and American troops under a truce accord signed at the end of the 1950-53 Korean conflict. Troops from the U.S. and other countries fought alongside South Korea under a U.N. flag to repel North Korea's invasion. The UNC controls Panmunjom but South Korea sends guards to help American troops.
The UNC said a North Korean guard had briefly violated the borderline, with some bullets straying into a UNC-controlled area, in breach of an armistice accord. It called for the meeting of a military armistice commission which observes the truce.
The defector, shot five times, was transferred to Ajou University Hospital south of Seoul for surgeries. The hospital said Wednesday the soldier remains conscious.
"Currently, the patient's consciousness is clear," doctor Lee Guk-jong said in a statement, adding the soldier would get better. Due to depression caused by gunshot wounds and surgeries, he may need treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, Lee said, adding the patient was infected with parasitic worms, tuberculosis and hepatitis B.
reporter
Lim Chang-won
cwlim34@ajunews.com
