North Korea soldier shot five times by former comrades as he races for the border to defect
This is the shocking moment a solider defecting from North Korea was shot five times by his former comrades as he raced to the border with the South.
The video shows the soldier speeding down a tree-lined road in a vehicle as shocked North Korean soldiers begin to run after him.
He then crashes the jeep into a ditch near the border before his former comrades run towards him, firing handguns and AK rifles at him.
One of the soldiers can be seen rushing across the line that divides the North and the South before running back to the northern side.
South Korean soldiers then crawl up to the defector, who fell injured into a pile of leave before he was dragged to safety.
A UN Command helicopter later transported the defector to the Ajou University Medical Centre near Seoul.
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After undergoing two surgeries last week to repair internal organ damage and other injuries, the soldier is now conscious and no longer relies on a breathing machine, according to hospital official Shin Mi-jeong.
While his condition is improving, doctors plan to keep him at the intensive care unit for at least several more days to guard against possible infections.
While treating the wounds, surgeons removed dozens of parasites from the soldier’s ruptured small intestine, including presumed roundworms that were as long as 27cm, a sign of poor nutrition and health in North Korea’s military.
North Korea’s actions during the defector’s escape at Panmunjom violated the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War because North Korean soldiers fired across and physically crossed the border in pursuit of the soldier, according to US Colonel Chad G Carroll.
Panmunjom is inside the two-and-a-half-mile-wide Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) that is jointly overseen by the American-led UN Command and by North Korea.
It is guarded by mines, barbed wire fences, tank traps and combat troops on both sides, making any defection a risky venture.
The latest defection will be a huge embarrassment for the North, which claims all defections are the result of Seoul kidnapping or enticing North Koreans to defect.
About 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea, mostly via China, since the end of the Korean War.
