South Korean guards fired warning shots across the heavily militarized border with North Korea on Thursday as a soldier from the North defected, officials said, complicating efforts to ease tensions over Pyongyang’s weapons programs.
A South Korean defense ministry official said up to 20 warning shots were fired at North Korean troops who approached too closely to the "military demarcation line," apparently in search of the missing soldier.
Thursday's defection came about five weeks after another North Korean soldier suffered critical gunshot wounds during a defection dash across the border on Nov. 13.