North Korea soldier shot while defecting at DMZ to South
A North Korean soldier has defected to South Korea at the heavily protected Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), South Korea's military says.
The soldier was shot and injured by his own military as he crossed to the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area in the village of Panmunjom.
The defector has been taken to hospital.
About 1,000 people from the North flee to the South each year - but very few defect via the DMZ.
This is the fourth defection by a North Korean soldier via the DMZ - one of the world's most heavily guarded strips of land - in the last three years.
North and South Korea are technically still at war, since the conflict between them ended in 1953 with a truce and not a formal peace treaty.
According to a statement from South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff, the soldier made it across by passing through the Joint Security Area (JSA) at Panmunjom, which is the only portion of the Demilitarised Zone where both forces stand face-to-face.
"He crossed from a North Korea post towards our Freedom House [a building on the South Korean side of the border]," the statement said. He was hit in the arm and shoulder by gunfire, it added.
According to @YonhapNews this is the 3rd defection across the JSA since end of Cold War. One soldier crossed in 1998, another in 2007. This defector shot in elbow and shoulder and has regained consciousness. Will be prized by the South.
End of Twitter post by @marklowen
According to South Korean media this is only the third defection across the JSA since the end of the Cold War, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Seoul reports. The last time a soldier crossed was in 2007, and before that in 1998.
The number of North Koreans defecting to South Korea in the first two-thirds of this year dropped by 13% compared with 2016. From January to August 2017, 780 North Koreans escaped to South Korea, according to officials in Seoul.
The fall is believed to be a result of tighter government surveillance and reinforced border security by both North Korea and China.
The majority of the defectors flee via China, which has the longest border with North Korea that is easier to cross than the heavily protected DMZ.
Seoul says more than 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the end of the Korean War in 1953.
My Write-Up:
Audience: This article was probably written for the Western world, not North and South Korea, since it explains all about the two countries still technically being at war, which anyone from those countries would obviously already know. In addition, while still being for a generally educated audience, since no prior knowledge of the Korean situation is needed, it is not targeting particularly informed people.
Publisher's Bias: As a left-wing publisher and a general fan of democracy and human rights, the BBC is obviously biased against North Korea and in favor of South Korea and the defector. This can be seen through including a tweet in the post which praised the defector and said he/she would "be prized". It also paints the fall of defections in the past year in a negative light.
My Bias: Like the BBC, I am also pretty biased against North Korea and was in favor of the defector when reading this article. I felt pretty outraged when reading about how the poor defector was shot by his own military and was really glad when I read that he/she was now safe.
Purpose: I think that the purpose of this article was to inform the Western world about the situation in North and South Korea and to remind people that North Korea is an ongoing problem. However, I think it was also written to inspire hope and to show that some people are escaping, even though they are few.
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