A North Korean defector walked across the heavily mined border to the South early today, Seoul's defence ministry said.
The man (37), identified only by his family name of Park, walked across the demilitarised zone (DMZ) at around 3.50 a.m. (4.50 a.m. Irish time yesterday) and said he wanted to escape a difficult life in the North, the ministry said.
The ministry said Park crossed a region close to the east coast.
Yesterday, South Korea exchanged machinegun fire with the communist North in a rare incident after the North fired on an observation post in the demilitarised zone, the divided peninsula's fortified frontier.
