North Korean Officer Defects To South

North Korean Officer Defects To South

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A North Korean officer fled across the heavily armed border with the South, the first officer to defect to the capitalist neighbor in about 10 years, a South Korean military official said on Monday.

A Joint Chiefs of Staff official said the defection took place on Sunday. Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying it was near the Panmunjom truce village set up in the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that has divided the peninsula for more than 50 years.

"We cannot comment on the rank or route the person used, because the officer is still under interrogation," the official told Reuters.

The two Koreas have more than 1 million troops positioned either side of the razor-wired and mine-strewn border. There are no fences in the Panmunjom truce village that straddles the border and is within the 4 km-wide (2.5 miles) DMZ.

North Koreans fleeing their impoverished homeland usually do so across the lightly patrolled border with China.

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