A North Korean soldier received serious injuries while trying to flee his country a couple of weeks ago. The US-led UN Command (UNC) recently released a video footage of the dramatic incident.
What happened on that day was caught in the camera installed near the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea. The footage shows that the North Korean soldier was on the demilitarised zone for a few seconds and then left the place. However, the image has triggered a fresh debate. The UNC claimed that the soldier violated the agreement signed by Pyongyang and Seoul after the Korean War in 1953.

The UNC, which is in charge of monitoring the deal, said in a statement earlier this week that the 24-year-old soldier is currently being treated at a South Korean hospital. Without revealing his rank, the Command said that the soldier was enjoying Western and South Korean music, and watching television.
The South Korean Army claimed that the North Korean forces fired more than 40 bullets at the soldier, surnamed Oh, from pistols and an AK-47 on November 13 and four of them hit him. However, he managed to cross the border and arrived in South Korea. Later, Oh underwent multiple surgeries at Ajou University Hospital. His surgeon Lee Cook-jong said that Oh was under stress and he might lose mental balance because of trauma.

According to Dr Lee, Oh informed the hospital staff that he had arrived in South Korea of his own free will. The defector said that he was stationed in the Joint Security Area near the UN truce village of Panmunjom. Oh also said that he had decided to cross the border because he wanted to live a peaceful life. According to the North Korean national, he always had a positive idea about the South.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, US Army Colonel and Public Affairs Chief of the UNC Chad Carroll said: “The key findings of the special investigation team are that the Korean People’s Army (KPA) violated the Armistice Agreement by one, firing weapons across the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily. I think it’s important to note that that point in this area of the JSA is exposed to a KPA checkpoint from where they are.” He, meanwhile, praised UNC and South Korean soldiers for allowing Oh to cross the border and to take shelter in the South.
However, it is still not sure whether South Korea will allow the defector to “live a better life” or to send him back to the North.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das