N Korean detained after crossing land border, says South

A NORTH Korean civilian voluntarily crossed the heavily mined land border between the two countries, aided by the South’s military in a delicate 20-hour operation, Seoul’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said yesterday.

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Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, with most going overland to neighbouring China first, then entering a third country such as Thailand before finally making it to the South.

Defections across the land border that divides the peninsula are relatively rare, as the area is densely forested, heavily mined and monitored by soldiers on both sides.

The North Korean man was first detected by a South Korean military surveillance device sometime on Thursday near a shallow stream inside the DMZ, the Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The man stayed mostly still during the day and was sometimes hard to track due to the lush forest in the area, the JCS said, but South Korea’s military approached him that night.

“The military identified the individual near the MDL, conducted track-

ing and surveillance,” the JCS said, referring to the Military Demarcation Line, the de facto border.