SEOUL, South Korea — A North Korean man defected to South Korea on Sunday after swimming south with plastic foam pieces on his shoulders to help keep him afloat, the military was quoted as saying. This is the second desertion in less than a week after a North Korean soldier fled to South Korea through the Demilitarized Zone, the heavily fortified border that divides the two Koreas, on Tuesday, the first such case since September 2016, Efe news reported. South Korean marines found the man, in his early 20s, around 2:30 a.m. Sunday near an observation post on the northern part of the Han River just west of Seoul in Gimpo, the Yonhap news agency reported, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Unification Ministry, which oversees ties between the two countries, has said the number of North Koreans who have fled to the South since the end of the Korean War surpassed 30,000 in November.
A North Korean soldier defects to South Korea after swimming across the Han River, the second North Korean defection in a week.