Warning Shots Fired As North Korean Soldier Defects

South Korea's defence ministry says a soldier from the North has defected by crossing the demilitarised zone that divides the peninsula.

The South Korean military said it fired warning shots at North Korean troops who were searching for the man.

Defence officials could not immediately confirm the report.

Thursday's defection came nearly 40 days after another North Korean soldier crossed the jointly controlled area at the border.

North Korean soldiers have occasionally - and often safely - fled through the land border.

When the soldier arrived at a front-line South Korean guard post, there was no shooting from the North, according to South Korea's Defence Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff.

But later on Thursday, South Korea's military detected North Korean soldiers approaching a military demarcation line at the border before they broadcast a warning and fired 20 rounds of warning shots from machine guns, said a South Korean defence official

The latest defection increased the number of North Korean soldiers who have fled through the land border this year to four, the Defence Ministry said.

About 30,000 North Koreans have defected to South Korea, mostly via China, since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War.

Tensions between the North and South are high, as the North has recently been accelerating its weapons tests as part of its stated goal of achieving a nuclear missile capable of striking anywhere in the United States.

Last month, North Korea test-fired its biggest and most powerful intercontinental ballistic missile.