North Korean Soldier Defects to South Korea, 4th Case Since June 2023

By Kim Seung-yeon SEOUL, June 24 (Yonhap) -- One North Korean soldier has been taken into South Korean custody after crossing the heavily fortified border earlier this week, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said Wednesday, in what is believed to be a defection from the North. "The military secured custody of one North Korean soldier in the central front Tuesday night and relevant authorities are currently investigating the details," the JCS said in a message to media, without providing further details. The soldier is said to have expressed an intent to defect. The latest case marks the fourth such border crossing by a North Korean since the launch of the Lee Jae Myung administration in June last year. In October, a North Korean staff sergeant seeking defection crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) separating the two Koreas by walking southward through a path along the east coast. The previous two cases in July involved civilians. One of them crossed the central frontline into the South while the other was rescued on the southern side of the Han River estuary west of the inter-Korean border.