North Korea

Extraordinary footage of the recent defection of a North Korean soldier across the border to the South has been released.

On 13 November the soldier drove up to the border within the Joint Security Area (JSA) and then sprinted to the other side, a hail of bullets following him.

The JSA is the only place in the 250km (155-mile)-long Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) where soldiers from both sides face each other. Located in the village of Panmunjom, it's a popular tourist attraction for South Koreans.

The UN Command, which oversees the military forces supporting South Korea, said the footage showed clear violations of the armistice brokered after the Korean War, with North Korean soldiers firing across the border and crossing the demarcation line.

But it also provides a rare insight into what happened during the defection and how each side coped.

The defector was very close to getting caught

Watching the CCTV footage, it seems extraordinary the soldier survived the daring escape. North Korean guards reach him just seconds after he flees from the vehicle once it crashed and proceed to fire at him from very close range.

He runs across a road and collapses metres away, only just out of their reach in the South and under cover of the low perimeter wall of what looks like South Korea's Freedom House complex.

There are no apparent physical obstacles to escape

In his vehicle, the soldier zooms past what appears to be a North Korean checkpoint, driving right up to the border before getting out and simply running across to the South. He could very well have driven right across if his vehicle had not broken down at the end, when a wheel reportedly fell off.

The DMZ is heavily fortified, but at the JSA there are none of the visible fences, concrete bollards, or conspicuous obstacles that one might expect at the border of two countries which are technically still at war.

Even the North Korean checkpoint did not appear to have a gantry barrier.

But this can be traced back to the original purpose of the JSA as defined by the armistice, Yang Wook, a senior researcher at the Korea Defense & Security Forum, told BBC Korean.

"The area was established to build up a neutral ground for armistice committee talks," which, he says, used to be held regularly. It was a place where the two militaries actually worked together.

"The military of North and South worked together in the JSA, which is self-evident in what it stands for - Joint Security Area."

It was originally laid out more ambiguously, but a 1976 skirmish known as the "axe murder incident", when North Korean soldiers killed US soldiers trimming a tree, resulted in new rules where both countries' militaries had to keep to their side.

Nevertheless, he adds, there are few places to hide. Freedom House, on the southern side of the border, has only one entry point in the centre of its southern side - so it would be hard for a defector from the North to hide in the building.

Another North Korean soldier briefly crossed the line One border guard gave chase, before stopping abruptly as he realised he had trespassed into the South. He turns around and runs back to his comrades who are hiding behind a guard post.

The UN Command said this was a technical breach of the armistice agreement.

But in fact, the Military Demarcation Line, a temporary administration line dividing North and South Korea, appears not to be visibly demarcated throughout the JSA.

The area contains a row of six buildings straddling that line, which is represented by raised concrete strips in the gaps between each structure.

But in the footage released by the UN Command, the defector runs across a grassy patch next to one of the buildings. The border guard does not seem aware he has trespassed until he is over on the South's side.

There are strict rules about military engagement in the JSA

The UN Command said on Wednesday that the North Korean guards had breached rules by firing at the defector in the direction of South Korea within the JSA.

In the 1953 armistice, which ended the Korean War with a truce, both sides agreed not to "execute any hostile act within, from, or against the demilitarised zone".

The US forces spokesman working under the UN command said the South showed "admirable restraint" by not returning fire.

It told the BBC that the findings of their investigation were relayed to the North in "the usual way" - reading them across the line while the North Koreans recorded from the other side.

It is now just waiting to hear if the North is willing to meet and discuss the incident and ways to avoid repeats.

It's a rare insight into North Korean rapid response

Throughout the incident, the North's security forces are visibly well armed, but their response appears confused.

Early in his escape, they had a chance to stop the soldier at a checkpoint, but he instead sped past while a checkpoint guard appeared to panic.

Then there was the border guard's intrusion into the South, and the soldiers' firing at the fleeing defector - either these were accidents and they forgot protocol in the confusion or took the decision to breach the rules.

In the immediate aftermath, a cluster of North Korean soldiers is seen milling about on their side of the JSA looking unsure, before walking off. One is even seen putting down his rifle to adjust his shoe or trouser leg.

The weaponry was a point picked up by some analysts.

"In theory, only the pistols are allowed... in the JSA for self-defence. In practice, however, [North Korean] soldiers have been seen carrying bigger firearms so the South Korean military also has prepared heavy firearms in the case of... aggression," Yang Wook told the BBC.

According to the UN Command, the South Koreans had a plan and worked quickly to recover the defector without knowing if he was booby trapped.

After waiting for about 40 minutes, two South Korean soldiers stealthily crawl towards the defector and drag him away.

Defections across the demilitarised zone, let alone the JSA, are very rare - and none have been quite as dramatic as this.

North Korea transmitted mysterious coded messages on Thanksgiving morning (23 November), according to experts at Strategic Sentinel, a Washington DC-based nonpartisan geostrategic consulting agency. Experts have previously observed that such transmissions often precede major weapons tests by Pyongyang.

Strategic Sentinel tweeted that it had observed Pyongyang transmitting the coded messages on the North Korean radio station 6400kHz. The radio station has reportedly been used previously by the reclusive nation to send secret coded messages, presumably to spies located outside its borders.

SEOUL, Nov. 29 (Yonhap) — North Korea fired an unidentified ballistic missile from South Pyongan Province early Wednesday, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

The missile flew eastward and the South Korean military is analyzing details with the U.S., it said.

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North Korea said Wednesday that it has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of hitting anywhere in the U.S., declaring that the launch marks the completion of its nuclear armament.

Analysts said that the latest test was the longest flight of a North Korean missile, but North Korea still seems to be short of mastering re-entry technology, a key element in developing an ICBM.

North Korea's media did not mention whether a warhead carried by a re-entry vehicle successfully withstood the extreme heat and pressure of passing through the Earth's atmosphere.

"To test the re-entry technology, there is a need to fire a missile on a standard trajectory. The North probably did not succeed in (mastering) it," said Chang Young-keun, a missile expert at Korea Aerospace University.

Experts said that Pyongyang apparently hastened to announce the completion of its nuclear development, with some claiming that the North may intend to secure a breakthrough in the current standoff with an "ambiguous" declaration.

KCNA added that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who personally signed off on the launch, "declared with pride that now we have finally realised the great historic cause of completing the state nuclear force, the cause of building a rocket power".

The report said that "as a responsible nuclear power and a peace-loving state", North Korea would "make every possible effort to serve the noble purpose of defending peace and stability of the world".

It said its weapons, meant as a defence against "the US imperialists' nuclear blackmail policy", would "not pose any threat to any country" as long as North Korean interests were not infringed upon.

An intercontinental ballistic missile that North Korea said could reach the "whole" mainland of the United States likely broke up upon re-entry into the earth's atmosphere, a US official said Saturday.

North Korea on Tuesday broke a two-month lull in weapons testing. It launched an advanced intercontinental ballistic missile, the Hwasong-15, that state-controlled media described as the "most powerful ICBM" carrying a "super-large heavy warhead" to unprecedented heights of almost 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles).

Technical analysis of the missile flight is still ongoing but the US official said "the North Koreans had problems with re-entry. "

Coupled with the rogue regime's need to master missile guidance and targeting, the re-entry failure underscores the challenges facing the country's weapons program, according to the official.

Still, the ability of the new missile to fly higher and longer than others in the past signals the program's intent to develop weapons capable of attacking the US.

While some US military officials have referred to the missile launched Tuesday as a "KN 22" — a designation signaling the launch involves a new type of ICBM — other officials urge caution in categorizing the missile.

So far, US officials believe the latest test involved a single missile in the inventory, and that future launches will likely include missiles with modifications.

The initial analysis shows Tuesday's launch likely involved a two-stage missile with a non-explosive dummy warhead, the official said. The first stage was significantly larger than that on other missiles. The larger size of the first and second stages allows the missile to fly a greater distance with a larger payload.

The missile was at least partially fueled by liquid fuel — which, along with some other indicators monitored by sensors and satellites allowed the US receive an earlier warning of the launch, according to the official.

The country's state media announced the test on Wednesday, hours after leader Kim Jong Un ordered the launch of the Hwasong-15 missile, which reached the highest altitude ever recorded by a North Korean missile.

The Republican senator Lindsey Graham has called on the Pentagon to move the families of US military personnel out of South Korea, as a senior Trump administration official warned that the potential for war with North Korea was growing by the day.

The South Carolina senator, who is a member of the Senate armed services committee, also opposed sending any more military dependents to South Korea, which hosts 28,500 US soldiers.