Seoul, Nov 14 (AFP) A North Korean soldier involved in anextremely rare and dramatic defection to the South was shotsix times by North Korean border troops as he dashed over theborder, military officials and doctors said today.
The US-led United Nations Command (UNC), which monitorsthe Panmunjom border truce village where the defectionoccurred Monday, said the soldier had driven close to theheavily-guarded, military demarcation line separating the twoKoreas in a vehicle.
"He then exited the vehicle and continued fleeing southacross the line as he was fired upon by other soldiers fromNorth Korea," the UNC said in a statement.
An official with the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staffsaid the North's border guards fired at least 40 rounds.
A doctor treating the injured soldier -- who washelicoptered to a hospital for emergency surgery -- said hehad been shot half-a-dozen times, including a serious stomachwound.
"He has at least six gunshot wounds on his body and thepenetrating wound in the abdomen is the most serious", thedoctor, Lee Cook-Jong, told reporters.
It is very rare for the North's troops to defect at thetruce village, a major tourist attraction bisected by thedemarcation line and the only part of the frontier whereforces from the two sides come face-to-face.
The fact that the defector drove to the border suggestshe may not have been a member of the elite corps of NorthKorean troops posted to Panmunjom, who are carefully vettedand selected for their loyalty.
No tourists were present at the time, because tours donot run on Mondays.
According to the South Korean military there was noexchange of fire across the border, and the UNC statementstressed that no South Korean or US forces were harmed in theincident, which happened in broad daylight around 4:00pm.
Unlike the rest of the frontier, Panmunjom is notfortified with minefields and barbed wire and the border ismarked only by a low concrete divider.
After racing across the border, the soldier took covernear a building on the South side.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff official said he was foundcollapsed in a pile of fallen leaves and recovered by threeSouth Korean soldiers crawling on their stomachs to hisposition.
In 1984, a Soviet citizen sprinted across the border fromNorth Korea to the South at Panmunjom in a defection bid,sparking a gunbattle that killed and wounded several soldierson both sides.
North Korean soldiers wielding axes hacked two USsoldiers to death at Panmunjom in a 1976 brawl over an attemptto trim a tree there. (AFP)UZM.
This is unedited, unformatted feed from the Press Trust of India wire.