N. KOREAN SOLDIER DEFECTS TO SOUTH

[Anchor Lead]

A North Korean man crossed the military demarcation line on Wednesday night and was found by South Korean soldiers. The man was found to be a North Korean soldier, and authorities are investigating the North Korean man who said he wants to defect to the South.

[Pkg]

​The Joint Chiefs of Staff said a North Korean man who crossed the military demarcation line on Wednesday night has been detained. The man was found to be an active-duty soldier. He expressed his intention to defect to South Korea.

[Soundbite] KIM JUN-RAK(JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF) : "The man who was detained on the central front in the DMZ is an active-duty soldier. He expressed his intention to defect."

South Korean army soldiers apprehended the North Korean at 11:38 p.m. Wednesday. The South Korean army's thermal observation devices detected him being carried by the Imjingang River about 750 meters south of the military demarcation line and 1.8 kilometers from the South Korean side of the barbed-wire fence separating the two Koreas. The surveillance devices showed him as a tiny dot floating southward in the river. At 11:56 p.m., when the North Korean man was just 300 meters away from the wire fence, the South Korean troops identified him as a person and took him into custody. A Joint Chiefs of Staff official said the South Korean army was on high alert on that day, because the water level in the river was five times higher than usual due to heavy rain. However, visibility was only around one hundred meters because of a thick fog, making it difficult to detect the North Korean soldier before he crossed the military demarcation line. The official added there were no other strange movements in the North Korean army. It's the first defection by a North Korean citizen via the military demarcation line since last December, when a North Korean soldier defected to the South by crossing the eastern front. It is also the first defection via the Imjingang River since 2010. The South Korean military is investigating the man in cooperation with the related government agencies.