Brave Escape & Rescue

[Anchor Lead]

The newly released video shows that when the North Korean soldier's jeep got stuck in a drainage ditch, he didn't immediately leave the car but spent several moments inside until the North Korean troops chasing after him were right on his heels. Also, his rescue by South Korean troops was delayed over concerns of additional fire from the North Korean side.

[Pkg]

The North Korean soldier's military jeep speedily enters the precincts of the Joint Security Area at the inter-Korean border. The jeep makes a right turn and then suddenly stops under a tree. The wheel got stuck in a drainage ditch. The time is 3:13 p.m....The soldier does not leave the car immediately. Instead, he tries to move the vehicle. Two minutes pass and at 3:15, the soldier ditches the jeep and starts to run southward. But a North Korean squad chasing after him also arrives on the scene and sprays bullets toward him.

[Soundbite] Col. Chad Carroll UN Command Spokesman)

The shooting took place right behind him and the soldier suffered five gunshot wounds. Shot multiple times, the soldier collapsed next to a wall of the Freedom House on the South Korean side of the border. It was 3:55 pm when three South Korean officers including a battalion commander and noncommissioned officer secured custody of the defected soldier. That was 24 minutes after the soldier's location was first discovered at 3:31 PM. The spot where the soldier was rescued is within observation distance from a North Korean guard post some 50 meters away and the North could have continued shooting.

[Soundbite] Col. Chad Carroll UN Command Spokesman)

It was an intense window of time as the soldier could have been caught or shot to death if he had been just a little late.