North Korean soldier shot six times as he defects to the South
Seoul — A North Korean soldier involved in an extremely rare and dramatic defection to the South was shot six times by his own side as he drove to the heavily guarded border and ran across under a hail of bullets. The US-led United Nations Command (UNC), which monitors the Panmunjom border truce village where the defection occurred Monday, said the soldier had driven close to the heavily guarded, military demarcation line separating the two Koreas. "He then exited the vehicle and continued fleeing south across the line as he was fired upon by other soldiers from North Korea," the United Nations Command said in a statement. An official with the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said the North’s border guards fired at least 40 rounds. A doctor treating the soldier — who was flown by helicopter to a hospital for emergency surgery — said he had been shot half-a-dozen times and sustained a serious stomach injury. "He has at least six gunshot wounds on his body and the penetrating wound ...
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