N. Korea defector soldier is general's son: report

The North Korean soldier who defected to the South in a hail of bullets last year is a general's son but says most Northerners of his age have no loyalty to Kim Jong Un, according to a Japanese newspaper.

Oh Chong Song's dramatic dash across the border at the Panmunjom truce village in the Demilitarised Zone -- under fire from his comrades -- made global headlines last year, and saw him hospitalised with serious injuries.

It is very rare for the North's troops to defect at Panmunjom, a major tourist attraction and the only place on the frontier where forces from the two sides come face-to-face.

The 25-year-old Oh is the son of a major-general, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported, in what it said was the defector's first media interview.

But despite his privileged birth -- he described himself as "upper class" -- he felt no allegiance to the North's leadership.

"Inside the North, people, and especially the younger generation, are indifferent to each other, politics, and their leaders, and there is no sense of loyalty."
"It is natural to have no interest nor loyalty since the hereditary system is taken as a given, regardless of its inability to feed people."
"The tension (that I felt) trickled down from the top."