Dramatic footage has captured the moment a North Korean soldier is chased and shot five times by his former comrades as he defects over the border to the South.

The US-led UN command released the video showing the escapee speeding down a tree-lined road before he crashes his jeep.

As he flies down the road towards freedom, North Korean soldiers near the Joint Security Area (JSA) come running out of their posts.

They chase the jeep down the road before it ploughs into an embankment.

The driver leaps out and is seen desperately running the last few yards to the border at the Panmunjom truce village.



But the path to safety is up a steep hill and he is seen stumbling on the thick blanket of dead leaves as his former brothers-in-arms open fire behind him.

One can even be seen straying across the frontier into the South as he tries to catch the defector - before beating a hasty retreat.

The escapee is hit at least five times and drops to the ground - with images showing him lying wounded amongst the leaves.

South Korean soldiers then crawl up to him and drag him to safety as North Korean troops gather on their side of the tense dividing line.

The UN said Kim Jong-un's henchmen violated the armistice by crossing the military demarcation line between the North and South.

The young man was then rushed to hospital in South Korea by helicopter where he has undergone two rounds of emergency surgery.



Attending doctor Lee Cook-jong told journalists: "Vital signs including his pulse are returning to stability."

But he warned the unnamed soldier could rapidly deteriorate at any moment.

Dr Lee said medics were "paying close attention to prevent possible complications" after revealing the defector had "an enormous number of parasites" in the small intestine.

"I've never seen anything like this in my 20 years as a physician," he said, adding the longest worm he removed was 11 inches long.

Parasites, especially roundworms, are widespread in North Korea - as they are in many developing countries - where people eat uncooked vegetables that have been fertilised with human faeces.

"The contamination... was very severe, and the future course of his medical condition is likely to be worse than that of general trauma patients as he was in a state of shock for a long while due to massive bleeding," he said.

South Korean officials have said troops from the North fired at least 40 rounds.

One of the worst wounds was in the man's abdomen, where the bullet shattered his pelvis.
It is very rare for troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major tourist attraction and the only part of the border where forces from the two sides come face-to-face.

Unlike the rest of the frontier, the village is not fortified with minefields and barbed wire, with the demarcation line marked only by a low concrete divider.

No personal details have been released but the soldier's uniform suggested he was low-ranking.

Dozens of North Korean soldiers have fled to the South through the heavily-fortified border over the decades since the peninsula was divided, including two soldiers who crossed the frontier in June.

More than 30,000 North Korean civilians have also fled their homeland since the two nations came into being in 1948, but it is rare for them to cross the closely guarded border.

mazimee:
He paid with his life, Freedom is not cheap

Some country citizens don't know the priviledge they are enjoying

Nbote:


He is alive and well... He was rescued by South Korean and American soldiers ryt on tym..