Three S.Korean soldiers rescued injured N.Korean defector

Three South Korean soldiers rescued a North Korean soldier who defected to Seoul after being shot by his fellow troops, the Defence Ministry said on Monday.

The North Korean soldier reportedly collapsed shortly after crossing the Joint Security Zone (JSA) that separates the two Koreas.

The three South Korean soldiers, stationed at the JSA, had rescued the private and taken him to a safe zone from where he was later evacuated to a hospital, a ministry spokesperson in Seoul told Efe news.

The ministry offered very little details of the incident and the UN Command stationed at the JSA refused to make the video of the event public due to fears of aggravating tension between the two Koreas.

It is believed that the images show one of the four North Korean soldiers who fired at the defector after the latter crossed the line of military demarcation as well as the Pyongyang Army firing into the South side.

Both would constitute a violation of the armistice signed at the end of the Korean War (1950-1953).

Meanwhile, doctors were waiting to operate on the defector a third time while his condition remains critical owing to a large number of parasites in his small intestine, that have infected organs already affected by gunshot wounds.

--IANS

ksk/bg