For those of us who have taken the DMZ Tour at Panmunjeon, or have seen the border from Observation Post Dora, we know that the border between the two Koreas is a pretty bleak place crisscrossed by concertina, barbed wire, and dusty fields.   We are also told by our sharply dressed Private First Class liasons that the border is one of the most heavily mined pieces of real estate in the world, and for that matter, in world history. 

Lo and behold, a North Korean soldier has defected through that very same border with nary a scratch.  He is a North Korean Army sergeant, now being questioned by the South Korean authorities, and is in good condition.   He is said to have defected because he was ‘fed up’ with the regime and disappointed particularly over being rejected by a school he had applied to. 

From the AP:

“The soldier told South Korean officials he was frustrated by life in North Korea and concerned about his future in the communist country, the NIS official said. The official asked not to be named, citing the agency policy.

It would be the second defection in a decade across the border. A North Korean officer also defected to the South through the DMZ in April.

Defections across the border — one of the world’s most heavily armed — are rare. The vast majority of North Koreans fleeing their communist homeland travel by land through China and Southeast Asia before arriving in the South.”   

Read the rest here.

–Editor

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