Tag Archives: South Korea

Long road ahead to a new life for wounded North Korean defector

Long road ahead to a new life for wounded North Korean defector

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – The North Korean soldier critically wounded when making a dash to the south last month may have cheated death, but even as his health improves, he is months if not years away from finding a normal life in South Korea, officials and other defectors say.

The transition to life in the democratic and prosperous South can be difficult for any defector from the isolated and impoverished North, let alone for a soldier from an elite border unit with potentially actionable military intelligence and a high profile that may complicate efforts to blend in.

The 24-year-old soldier, identified only by his surname Oh, has been released from intensive care after being shot five times during his daring defection, but is still battling a hepatitis B infection which could delay his transfer to a military hospital for some time, doctors said.

“As active duty soldier defectors have up-to-date information, the intelligence agencies would question the soldiers and see if anything needs to be addressed in our military’s operation and combat plans,” a current South Korean government official involved in resettling North Korean refugees told Reuters.

Oh will likely be under the protection of South Korea’s spy agency, the National Intelligence Service (NIS), and then be offered work such as code cracking in the military or related agencies, a former senior South Korean government official said.

“The decision would be made after a comprehensive assessment on what he means to national security, the level of information he has, and whether he would be capable of mingling with other defectors at the resettlement center,” the former official said.

A SPECIAL CASE

Defections by active-duty soldiers are extremely rare, once a year or less. Intelligence agencies are keen to question Oh, who was stationed in the Joint Security Area near the heavily fortified border, according to South Korean lawmakers briefed by the NIS.

Doctors have asked that officials wait until Oh is fully recovered both physically and emotionally before they begin questioning.

Given his high-profile escape and status as a member from an elite border unit, Oh will likely be given more personalized assistance, away from other North Korean defectors at the Hanawon resettlement center, the former South Korean official said.

Most defectors undergo security questioning by the National Intelligence Service for a few days up to several months in extreme cases, before being moved to the Hanawon resettlement center.

There they receive mandatory three-month education on life in the capitalist South, from taking public transportation to opening a bank account to creating an email address.

“It’s where you would get to see the outside world for the first time, as they take you out to meet people on the streets and learn how to access the social service network. These days, you can also do a homestay with an ordinary South Korean family,” said Ji Seong-ho, a 35-year-old defector who heads Now, Action and Unity for Human Rights (NAUH), a group that rescues and resettles North Korean refugees.

‘LIKE A BABY’

Such training can be more useful for some people than others, said Kim Jin-soo, a 29-year-old former member of the North Korean secret police who defected to the South in 2011.

“Looking back, it would’ve been really useful if they taught more realistic things even though it might discourage people, like how to prepare for a job fair and find a suitable workplace and why it’s important to lose the North Korean accent,” he said.

“Fresh off Hanawon, you’re like a one-year-old baby. But those are the things that would pose a real obstacle when you actually go out there on your own,” said Kim, who now works at a advertising firm in Seoul.

After leaving Hanawon, central and local governments provide defectors 7 million won ($6,450) in cash over a year – barely a fifth of South Korea’s annual average income – as well as support in housing, education and job training. Police officers are assigned to each of the defectors to ensure their security.

Oh may have potential value to the South Korean government or organizations that try to highlight conditions in North Korea, but it will be up to him whether he wants to live a life in the limelight, said Sokeel Park, country director for Liberty in North Korea, which helps North Korean refugees.

“If he has any mind to get involved in that kind of stuff then there will be all kinds of media or non-governmental organizations who would fall over themselves to give him that platform,” said Park.

“But if he makes a good recovery and he chooses to blend it, then he’s just another young guy with a vague back story.”

GRAPHIC: Defector braves hail of bullets http://reut.rs/2zAUDRN

(Writing and additional reporting by Josh Smith; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Japan detects radio signals pointing to possible North Korea missile test: source

Japan detects radio signals pointing to possible North Korea missile test: source

TOKYO/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Japan has detected radio signals suggesting North Korea may be preparing another ballistic missile launch, although such signals are not unusual and satellite images did not show fresh activity, a Japanese government source said on Tuesday.

After firing missiles at a pace of about two or three a month since April, North Korean missile launches paused in September, after it fired a rocket that passed over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island.

“This is not enough to determine (if a launch is likely soon),” the source told Reuters.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported late on Monday that the Japanese government was on alert after catching such radio signals, suggesting a launch could come in a few days. The report also said the signals might be related to winter military training by the North Korean military.

North Korea is pursuing its nuclear weapons and missile programmes in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, citing a South Korean government source, also reported that intelligence officials of the United States, South Korea and Japan had recently detected signs of a possible missile launch and have been on higher alert.

South Korean Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon told reporters on Tuesday there have been “noteworthy” movements from the North since its last missile launch in mid-September, but there was no hard evidence of another nuclear or missile test.

“North Korea hasn’t been engaging in new nuclear or missile tests but recently we’ve seen them persistently testing engines and carrying out fuel tests,” said Cho at a media event in Seoul.

“But we need some more time to see whether these are directly related to missile and nuclear tests.”

Asked about the media reports, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Robert Manning told reporters the United States continued to watch North Korea very closely.

“This is a diplomatically led effort at this point, supported by military options,” he said.

“The Republic of Korea and U.S. alliance remains strong and capable of countering any North Korean provocations or attacks.”

Two U.S. government sources familiar with official assessments of North Korean capabilities and activities said that while they were not immediately familiar with recent intelligence suggesting that North Korea was preparing to launch a new missile test, the U.S. government would not be surprised if such a test were to take place in the very near future.

Other U.S. intelligence officials noted North Korea has previously sent deliberately misleading signs of preparations for missile and nuclear tests, in part to mask real preparations, and in part to test U.S. and allied intelligence on its activities.

South Korea’s Cho said North Korea may announce the completion of its nuclear programme within a year, as it is moving more faster than expected in developing its arsenal.

North Korea defends its weapons programmes as a necessary defence against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which stations 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention.

(Reporting by Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, Phil Stewart, Mark Hosenball and John Walcott in WASHINGTON, Soyoung Kim and Christine Kim in SEOUL; Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by lincoln Feast and Nick Macfie)

South Korea warns North not to repeat armistice violation

South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo looks around a spot where a North Korean collapsed wounded by gun shot by North Korean soldiers while crossing the border on November 13, at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarized zone, South Korea, November 27, 2017.

PANMUNJOM, South Korea (Reuters) – North Korea violated an armistice agreement with South Korea this month when North Korean soldiers shot and wounded a North Korean soldier as he defected across their border and it must not do so again, South Korea’s defense minister said on Monday.

The defector, a North Korean soldier identified only by his surname, Oh, was critically wounded but has been recovering in hospital in South Korea.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tension between North Korea and the international community over its nuclear weapons program, but the North has not publicly responded to the defection at the sensitive border.

South Korean Minister of Defence Song Young-moo issued his warning to the North while on a visit to the border where he commended South Korean soldiers at a Joint Security Area (JSA), in the so-called Truce Village of Panmunjom, in the demilitarized zone, for rescuing the defector.

A North Korean border guard briefly crossed the border with the South in the chase for the defector on Nov. 13 – a video released by the U.N. Command (UNC) in Seoul showed – a violation of the ceasefire accord between North and South at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

“Shooting towards the South at a defecting person, that’s a violation of the armistice agreement,” Song said.

“Crossing the military demarcation line, a violation. Carrying automatic rifles (in the JSA), another violation,” he added as he stood near where South Korean soldiers had found Oh, collapsed and bleeding from his wounds.

“North Korea should be informed this sort of thing should never occur again.”

Since the defection, North Korea has reportedly replaced guards stationed there. Soldiers have fortified a section of the area seen aimed at blocking any more defections by digging a trench and planting trees.

As Song was speaking 10 meters away from the trees North Korean soldiers planted, four North Korean soldiers were spotted listening closely.

South Korean military officials pointed out two bullet holes in a metal wall on a South Korean building, from North Korean shots fired at Oh as he ran.

Oh has undergone several operations in hospital to remove bullets. His lead surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, told Reuters his patient has suffers from nightmares about being returned to the North.

In South Korea, six soldiers, three South Korean and three American, were given awards by the U.S. Forces Korea last week in recognition for their efforts in rescuing the defector.

After inspecting the site on Monday, Song met troops stationed there for lunch and praised them for acting ‘promptly and appropriately’.

South Korea has been broadcasting news of the soldier’s defection towards North Korea via loudspeakers, according to the South’s Yonhap news agency.

South Korean military officials have declined to confirm that.

 

(Reporting by Do-gyun Kim; Writing by Christine Kim; Editing by Soyoung Kim, Robert Birsel)

 

North Korea replaces soldiers, South Korea awards medals after defector’s border dash

North Korea replaces soldiers, South Korea awards medals after defector's border dash

By James Pearson and Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea has reportedly replaced guards and fortified a section of its border with South Korea where a North Korean soldier defected last week, while South Korean and U.S. soldiers have been decorated for their role in the defector’s rescue.

The North Korean defector was shot and wounded by his fellow soldiers as he dashed into the South Korean side of the Joint Security Area (JSA) last week.

The South Korean and U.S. soldiers who led a rescue attempt to drag the gravely injured soldier to safety have been awarded medals, according to U.S. Forces Korea.

A group of senior diplomats based in Seoul visited the JSA on Wednesday morning where they saw five North Korean workers digging a deep trench in the area where the soldier had dashed across the line after getting his jeep stuck in a small ditch, a member of the diplomatic delegation told Reuters on Friday.

In a photograph of the visit posted to the Twitter account of acting U.S. ambassador to South Korea, Marc Knapper, North Korean workers could be seen using shovels to dig a deep trench on the North Korean side of the line as soldiers stood guard.

“The workers were being watched very closely by the KPA guards, not just the two in the photo, but others out of shot behind the building,” said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation.

According to an intelligence official cited by South Korea’s Yonhap news agency, the North has replaced the 35-40 soldiers it had guarding the JSA at the time of the incident.

“We’re closely monitoring the North Korean military’s movement in the JSA,” a South Korean defense ministry official told reporters, without confirming the reduction in border guards. “There are limits as to what we can say about things we know.”

Reuters was unable to independently verify the reports, although photos taken by Knapper and other diplomats of soldiers guarding the area where workers were digging the trench showed them dressed in slightly different uniforms to the ones usually worn by North Korea’s JSA guards.

Two new trees had also been planted in the small space between the ditch and the line with the South, the diplomat told Reuters, in an apparent effort to make it more difficult for would-be defectors to drive across the ground.

Meanwhile, in South Korea, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said it had awarded its own JSA soldiers – three South Korean and three U.S. soldiers – the Army Commendation medal in recognition for their efforts in rescuing the defector.

The medals were personally handed out by USFK Commander Vincent Brooks in a ceremony on Thursday, according to USFK’s Facebook page.

The soldiers had been responsible for dragging the wounded North Korean soldier to safety in a daring rescue seen in security camera footage released by the United Nations Command earlier this week.

Pyongyang has not commented on the defection of its soldier, who is now in stable condition despite sustaining multiple injuries sustained from gunshot wounds to his arm and torso.

The young soldier, known only by his family name Oh, is a quiet, pleasant man who has nightmares about being returned to the North, his surgeon told Reuters on Thursday.

(For a graphic, click http://reut.rs/2jfoZPI)

(Reporting by Christine Kim and James Pearson; Additional reporting by Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Escape from North Korea: video shows defector under fire

Escape from North Korea: video shows defector under fire

By Haejin Choi and Josh Smith

SEOUL (Reuters) – A North Korean border guard briefly crossed the border with the South in the chase for a defector last week – a violation of the ceasefire accord between North and South, a video released on Wednesday by the U.N. Command (UNC) in Seoul showed.

The North Koreans were only steps behind the young man when they shot him at least four times as he made his escape on Nov. 13. The video, filmed as the defector drove an army truck through the demilitarized zone and then abandoned the vehicle, gives a dramatic insight into his escape.

The defector, identified by a surgeon as a 24-year-old with the family name Oh, was flown by a U.S. military helicopter to a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul. Doctors said he had regained consciousness, having had two operations to extract the bullets, and his breathing was stable and unassisted.

“He is fine,” lead surgeon Lee Cook-Jong said at a news conference in Suwon. “He is not going to die.”

A UNC official said North Korea had been informed on Wednesday that it had violated the 1953 armistice agreement, which marked the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War.

The UNC official told a news conference that a soldier from the North Korean People’s Army (KPA) had crossed the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), the border between the two Koreas, for a few seconds as others fired shots at the defecting soldier.

“The key findings of the special investigation team are that the KPA violated the armistice agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily,” Chad Carroll, Director of Public Affairs for the UNC, told reporters.

The incident comes at a time of heightened tensions between North Korea and the international community over its nuclear weapons program, but Pyongyang has not publicly responded to the defection.

The video, released by the UNC, was produced from surveillance cameras on the southern side of the the Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the demilitarized zone. When tree cover is too dense to see the wounded defector crawling across the border, it switches to infra-red.

DESPERATE ESCAPE

The film begins with a lone dark green army jeep speeding along empty, tree-lined roads toward the border.

At one checkpoint, a North Korean guard marches impassively toward the approaching vehicle. It races by. He runs in pursuit.

After passing a memorial to North Korea founder Kim Il Sung, where tourists often gather, the jeep runs into a ditch just meters from the border, which is not clearly marked.

For several minutes the driver tries to free the vehicle, but the wheels spin uselessly in fallen leaves.

The driver abandons the vehicle and sprints away, pushing tree branches out of his way and sending leaves flying.

He scrambles up a slope to cross just seconds before more guards appear, shooting as they run.

One slides into a pile of dead leaves to open fire before running forward and appearing to briefly cross the dividing line between the two countries. He quickly turns on his heel.

The video does not show the moment the defector is hit, but he is seen lying in a pile of brush next to a concrete wall in a later edited clip.

The UNC’s Carroll said the position was still exposed to North Korean checkpoints across the border.

Allied troops operating the cameras had by then notified their commanders and a quick reaction force had assembled on the South Korean side, according to Carroll. The video does not show this force.

Infrared imagery shows two South Korean soldiers crawling through undergrowth to drag the wounded North Korean to safety, while the deputy commander of the border security unit oversees the rescue from a few meters away.

LONG RECOVERY

Doctors have conducted a series of surgeries to remove four bullets from the critically wounded soldier, who arrived at the hospital having lost a large amount of blood.

“From a medical point of view he was almost dead when he was first brought here,” said the surgeon, Lee.

Hospital officials said the man remains in intensive care.

The soldier showed signs of depression and possible trauma, in addition to a serious case of parasites that has complicated his treatment, the hospital said in a statement. Lee said last week one of the flesh-colored parasites he removed from the soldier’s digestive tract was 27 cm (10.6 in) long.

Continuing stress made the soldier hesitant to talk, but he had been cooperative, doctors said.

The patient first recovered consciousness on Sunday, and asked where he was in South Korea, Lee said. He was in “agony” when he came to, the surgeon added.

Since then doctors have played South Korean pop music for him, and American action movies including “The Transporter” from 2002.

On average more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to the South every year, but most travel via China and numbers have fallen since Kim Jong Un came to power in 2011. It is unusual for a North Korean to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas. They have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The last time a North Korean soldier had defected across the JSA was in 2007.

(Reporting by Hyonhee Shin, Christine Kim, and James Pearson; Writing by Josh Smith; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Sara Ledwith)

South Korea, Japan welcome U.S. relisting North Korea as sponsor of terrorism

South Korea, Japan welcome U.S. relisting North Korea as sponsor of terrorism

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea and Japan on Tuesday welcomed U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, saying it will ramp up pressure on the reclusive regime to get rid of its nuclear weapons.

The designation, announced on Monday, allows the United States to impose more sanctions on North Korea, which is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions. (Graphic: Nuclear North Korea – http://tmsnrt.rs/2lE5yjF)

“I welcome and support (the designation) as it raises the pressure on North Korea,” Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters.

South Korea said it expected the listing to contribute to peaceful denuclearisation, the foreign ministry said in a text message.

North Korea has vowed never to give up its nuclear weapons program, which it defends as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such plans.

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China had noted the reports on the U.S. decision.

“Currently, the situation on the Korean peninsula is complicated and sensitive,” Lu told a daily news briefing.

“We still hope all relevant parties can do more to alleviate the situation and do more that is conducive to all relevant parties returning to the correct path of negotiation, dialogue and consultation to resolve the peninsula nuclear issue.”

The move will further weigh on the “precarious situation” on the peninsula, China’s official Xinhua news agency said in an English-language editorial.

“The prospect of a nuclear-free Korean peninsula has been pushed farther away by one after another irresponsible action or blaring rhetoric,” it said.

This year’s rapid escalation of tension was largely down to a “game of chicken” between Washington and Pyongyang, it added.

Trump’s re-listing of North Korea as a sponsor of terrorism comes a week after he returned from a 12-day trip to Asia in which containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions was a centerpiece of his discussions.

“In addition to threatening the world by nuclear devastation, North Korea has repeatedly supported acts of international terrorism, including assassinations on foreign soil,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

“This designation will impose further sanctions and penalties on North Korea and related persons and supports our maximum pressure campaign to isolate the murderous regime.”

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also backed Trump’s decision.

“Kim Jong Un runs a global criminal operation from North Korea peddling arms, peddling drugs, engaged in cyber-crime and of course threatening the stability of region with his nuclear weapons,” Turnbull told reporters in Sydney, referring to the North Korean leader.

Trump, who has often criticized his predecessors’ policies toward North Korea as being too soft, said the designation should have been made “a long time ago”.

North Korea was put on the U.S. terrorism sponsor list for the 1987 bombing of a Korean Air flight that killed all 115 people aboard. But the administration of former President George W. Bush, a Republican, removed it in 2008 in exchange for progress in denuclearisation talks.

Experts say the designation will be largely symbolic as North Korea is already heavily sanctioned by the United States.

On Monday, South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s special security adviser, Moon Chung-in, told reporters any such designation would be “more symbolic than substance”.

The United States has designated only three other countries – Iran, Sudan and Syria – as state sponsors of terrorism.

North Korea has said it plans to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan and on Sept. 3 conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test.

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and David Brunnstrom in WASHINGTON, Michael Martina and Philip Wen in BEIJING, Chang-Ran Kim in TOKYO and Jane Wardell in SYDNEY; Writing by Michael Perry; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)

South Korea fears further missile advances by North this year in threat to U.S.

A flag is pictured outside the Permanent Mission of North Korea in Geneva, Switzerland, November 17, 2017.

By Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters) – North Korea may conduct additional missile tests this year to polish up its long-range missile technology and ramp up the threat against the United States, South Korea’s spy agency said on Monday, adding that it was monitoring developments closely.

North Korea is pursuing nuclear weapons and missile programs in defiance of U.N. Security Council sanctions and has made no secret of its plans to develop a missile capable of hitting the U.S. mainland. It has fired two missiles over Japan.

The reclusive state appears to have carried out a recent missile engine test while brisk movements of vehicles were spotted near known missile facilities, Yi Wan-young, a member of South Korea’s parliamentary intelligence committee which was briefed by Seoul’s National Intelligence Service, said.

No sign of an imminent nuclear test had been detected, Yi noted. The third tunnel at the Punggye-ri complex remained ready for another detonation “at any time”, while construction had recently resumed at a fourth tunnel, making it out of use for the time being.

“The agency is closely following the developments because there is a possibility that North Korea could fire an array of ballistic missiles this year under the name of a satellite launch and peaceful development of space, but in fact to ratchet up its threats against the United States,” the lawmakers told reporters after a closed-door briefing by the spy agency.

North Korea defends its weapons programs as a necessary defense against U.S. plans to invade. The United States, which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean war, denies any such intention.

Pyongyang is also carrying out a sweeping ideological scrutiny of the political unit of the military for the first time in 20 years, according to Kim Byung-kee, another lawmaker in the committee.

The probe was led by the ruling Workers’ Party’s Organisation and Guidance Department and orchestrated by Choe Ryong Hae, who once headed the General Political Bureau of the Korean People’s Army himself until he was replaced by Hwang Pyong So in May 2014.

As a result, Hwang and Kim Won Hong, who Seoul’s unification ministry said was removed from office in mid-January as minister of the Stasi-like secret police called “bowibu”, had been punished, the lawmaker said. He did not elaborate.

Choe, who was subjected to political “reeducation” himself in the past, appears to be gaining more influence since he was promoted in October to the party’s powerful Central Military Commission.

The National Intelligence Service indicated that Choe now heads the Organisation and Guidance Department, a secretive body that oversees appointments within North Korea’s leadership.

“Under Choe’s command, the Organisation and Guidance Department is undertaking an inspection of the military politburo for the first time in 20 years, taking issue with their impure attitude toward the party leadership,” the lawmaker, Kim, said.

Separately on Monday, South Korea approved a request by a South Korean to attend an event in the North marking the anniversary of the death of his mother who formerly led the Chondoist Chongu Party, a minor North Korean political party.

The son, identified only by his surname Choi, will be the first South Korean to visit the North since liberal President Moon Jae-in took office in May.

He is scheduled to arrive in Pyongyang via China on Wednesday and return on Saturday, according to Seoul’s unification ministry.

A senior Chinese official wrapped up a four-day visit to North Korea on Monday, apparently without meeting the country’s leader, Kim Jong Un.

Song Tao, head of the international department of the Chinese Communist Party, met senior officials from the Workers Party of Korea and “exchanged views on the Korean peninsula issue”, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.

“The ruling parties of China and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Monday pledged to strengthen inter-party exchanges and coordination, and push forward relations,” it added, using North Korea’s official name.

Song had been in Pyongyang to discuss the outcome of the recently concluded Chinese Communist Party Congress in Beijing.

 

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)

 

South Korea postpones university exam after rare earthquake

By Christine Kim and Cynthia Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea postponed its annual university entrance exam by a week on Wednesday after a rare earthquake rattled the country, shaking buildings and causing damage but no deaths.

Minister of Education Kim Sang-kon said the hugely competitive exam, scheduled for Thursday, would be postponed for the first time ever because of a natural disaster. It was the country’s second-biggest earthquake on record.

“A fair amount of damage was reported,” Kim told a media briefing.

“Due to the continued aftershocks, we are seeing many citizens, including students, unable to return home.”

The exam would now be held on Nov. 23 to ensure conditions were fair for everyone, he said.

The 5.4 magnitude quake struck about 9 km (5 miles) north of the southeastern port city of Pohang, the Korea Meteorological Administration said.

Shaking was felt across the country and there were numerous reports of minor damage. Operations at nuclear reactors were not affected, the state-run nuclear operator Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Co said.

The university entrance exam is taken very seriously. Commercial airliners do not fly during listening portions of the exam, while financial markets open later in the day to ensure light traffic for students to get to their exam centers.

The country’s foreign exchange and stock markets will still open an hour late (0100 GMT) on Thursday, South Korean financial authorities said in text messages.

South Korea has relatively little seismic activity, compared with Japan to the east.

Its strongest quake on record was magnitude 5.8 in September last year.

The Meteorological Administration said nearly 20 aftershocks had shaken the region and more were expected in coming days.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Cynthia Kim; Additional reporting by Jane Chung, Haejin Choi; Editing by Robert Birsel)

North Korea defector ‘stabilized’ after second surgery: South Korean surgeon

North Korea defector 'stabilized' after second surgery: South Korean surgeon

By Christine Kim and Joyce Lee

SEOUL (Reuters) – A North Korean soldier who suffered critical gunshot wounds during a defection dash over the border to South Korea this week stabilized on Wednesday after a second round of surgery, a doctor treating him said.

The soldier, whose rank and identity have not been disclosed, was flown by helicopter to hospital on Monday after his escape to South Korea in a hail of bullets fired by North Korean soldiers.

Wednesday’s surgery was “successful” in terms of staunching bleeding and the soldier had “stabilized much”, said Lee Cook-jong, the surgeon in charge of his treatment.

However, he remained unconscious and was not out of the woods, as complications from a severe hip fracture and possible infection remained major concerns, Lee said.

“We will be able to tell you after about 10 days,” Lee told reporters at a briefing, when asked about the soldier’s chances of surviving.

On Tuesday, government and military officials said the soldier was in critical condition but doctors expected him to live.

The soldier made his escape in a border “peace village” on the heavily guarded demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

At first, he sped toward the border in a four-wheel drive vehicle but was forced to abandon it and flee on foot when one of its wheels came loose, South Korean officials said earlier.

He was hit by about seven bullets before he took cover behind a South Korean structure in a Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the demilitarized zone.

Doctors removed five bullets from him earlier and one more on Wednesday.

North Korea has remained silent on the issue, while no unusual activity has been detected at the border where the soldier defected, the South’s Unification Ministry said.

“There will need to be some questioning on why he defected after his treatment is over,” ministry spokesman Baik Tae-hyun told a regular briefing.

Monday was the first time since 2007 a North Korean soldier had defected across the JSA.

(Reporting by Christine Kim and Joyce Lee; Additional reporting by Hyunjoo Jin and Yuna Park; Editing by Clarence Fernandez, Robert Birsel)

Defecting North Korean soldier critical after escape in hail of bullets

Defecting North Korean soldier critical after escape in hail of bullets

By Christine Kim

SEOUL (Reuters) – A North Korean soldier is expected to survive critical wounds he received when his old comrades fired a hail of bullets at him as he made a defection dash to South Korea, the South’s government and military said on Tuesday.

The soldier had on Monday sped toward the border in a “peace village” in the heavily guarded demilitarized zone, in a four-wheel drive vehicle.

But when a wheel came loose, he fled on foot as four North Korean soldiers fired about 40 rounds at him, said Suh Wook, chief director of operations at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, briefing lawmakers.

“Until this morning, we heard he had no consciousness and was unable to breathe on his own but his life can be saved,” Suh said.

Surgeons had removed five bullets from the soldier’s body, leaving two inside, Suh added, to murmurs from lawmakers who said the soldier’s escape was “right out of a movie”.

The soldier took cover behind a South Korean structure in a Joint Security Area (JSA) inside the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas.

South Korean and U.S. soldiers, fearing more North Korean fire, later crawled to him to rescue him, the United Nations Command said in a separate statement.

North Korea has not said anything about the soldier. Its military had not given any indication of unusual movements on Tuesday, the South’s military said.

While on average more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to the South every year, most travel via China and it is unusual for a North Korean to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas, which have been in a technical state of war since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

The U.N. Command, in place since the end of the war, said an investigation into the incident was being conducted.

South Korean Defence Minister Song Young-moo said it was the first time North Korean soldiers had fired toward the South’s side of the JSA, prompting complaints from some lawmakers that the South’s military should have returned fire.

Moon Sang-gyun, the South’s defense ministry spokesman, said military operations at the JSA were usually conducted under the orders of the U.N. Command, which is in turn under orders from the U.S. military.

INTESTINAL DAMAGE

The soldier, who was not armed, was flown in a U.N. Command helicopter to an operating theater where doctors began working to save him even before he was out of a uniform that indicated he held a lower rank, Suh said.

South Korean officials have yet to identify where the soldier came from or what his intentions were.

Lee Cook-jong, the surgeon in charge of the soldier’s care at the Ajou University Hospital, told reporters he was suffering from critical intestinal damage.

Hospital officials where under strict security agency orders not to talk to media and all updates on the soldier had to be through the military, workers there told Reuters.

Dr Lee had been “given a talking-to” after a brief exchange with the media, the hospital workers said.

The U.N. military armistice commission said it had informed the North Korean military that the soldier, who was found about 50 meters (150 feet) south of a Military Demarcation Line, was undergoing surgery for his wounds.

Suh said the South had also informed the North on Monday of the soldier and his treatment, via loudspeakers on the border.

North Korea has in the past complained that North Korean defectors had been abducted by South Korea, and it has demanded their release.

This month, the North demanded that South Korea return 12 waitresses it said had been kidnapped while working in China in 2016. South Korea said the 12 women, and one man, had chosen to defect to the South.

Monday was the first time since 2007 a North Korean soldier had defected across the JSA.

(Reporting by Christine Kim; Additional reporting by Cynthia Kim, Yuna Park and Heekyong Yang; Editing by Michael Perry and Robert Birsel)