In what is apparently the first such incident in nearly two-and-half years, a North Korean soldier has defected across the heavily armed land border with the South. 
 
 
 
 South Korean military officials say a soldier from the North claims he shot and killed his platoon and squad chiefs while on guard duty before defecting across the heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone. 
 
 
 
 The incident occurred at noon Saturday along the western section of the DMZ. 
 
 
 
 Officials say South Korean troops at the border heard gunshots, confirmed the North Korean soldier's desire to defect, and escorted him to a guard post. He is now undergoing interrogation. 
 
 
 
 The senior analyst in Seoul for the International Crisis Group, Daniel Pinkston, says there is no indication the defection denotes any instability in the reclusive and impoverished state. 
 
 
 
 “We'll see as he's debriefed and it's just a one-off incident, so I don't think there's too much we can read into it besides that at this point,” he said. 
 
 
 
 Pinkston points out that soldiers in North Korea's army posted to the border area are scrupulously vetted. 
 
 
 
 “Those who are stationed in the border area, around the DMZ and especially right on the DMZ, are those who are considered to be loyal to the regime. They've been screened and they do not put people there who would be considered disloyal,” he said. 
 
 
 
 Defections by North Koreans along the DMZ are rare. The last known incident involving a soldier occurred in March, 2010. 
 
 
 
 Under North Korea's collective punishment system, a disloyal act of this magnitude would mean harsh treatment for the soldier's family, extending for three generations. 
 
 
 
 The Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul says South Korea has increased surveillance along the DMZ following the incident and the military has activated its crisis management facility. However, there is no sign of any unusual activity on the northern side. 
 
 
 
 The DMZ is a legacy of the 1953 armistice which brought a three-year civil war to a halt. But the two Koreas have never signed a peace treaty. ||||| A South Korean soldier next to the loudspeakers near the border area between South Korea and North Korea last year in Yeoncheon, South Korea. Korea Pool-Donga Daily via Getty Images 
 
 South Korea is broadcasting news of a North Korean soldier's defection into North Korea, Yonhap News reported Sunday. 
 
 The broadcast, transmitted via loudspeakers installed near the Demilitarized Zone, began shortly after news broke of the soldier's November 13 defection, military officials said. 
 
 South Korea's loudspeaker system at the DMZ is used as a type of psychological warfare against North Korea, working to demoralize troops. 
 
 Several defectors listened to the broadcasts before attempting an escape, and one man who defected in June said he became "enamored" with South Korea's development from listening to the loudspeakers. 
 
 North Korean soldiers have heard in detail how a 24-year-old fellow soldier— who has been identified only by his family name, "Oh" — was shot as he defected and is now being treated in South Korea. 
 
 "The news about an elite soldier like a JSA guard having fled in a hail of bullets will have a significant psychological impact on North Korean border guards," a South Korean military spokesman told the newspaper Chosun Ilbo. 
 
 Last week, the United Nations Command released a video showing Oh crossing the border into South Korea as North Korean soldiers fired their weapons at him. 
 
 The soldier was found on the south side of the border village of Panmunjom, about 50 meters south of the Military Demarcation Line, having been shot five times. 
 
 According to Reuters, more than 1,000 North Koreans defect to South Korea every year via China, but it is unusual for defectors to cross the land border dividing the two Koreas, which have been in a technical state of war since 1953 when conflict ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. 
 
 Loudspeaker diplomacy is popular on both sides of the DMZ 
 
 Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images 
 
 This is not the first time South Korea, or North Korea, has used a loudspeaker system on its border to spread propaganda — the DMZ is actually one of the world's busiest regions for such broadcasts. 
 
 South Korea's propaganda program has used giant loudspeakers periodically since the Korean War but has become more subtle in recent years, according to the BBC. Broadcasts include weather reports, news from both Koreas and abroad, and discussion of life in South Korea. 
 
 The speakers have also played hours of K-pop music from South Korean musicians and groups over the years. 
 
 According to The Diplomat, the system went unused for 11 years. It was used briefly in August 2015 after North Korea injured two South Korean soldiers and was fully reinstated in January 2016 after North Korea's fourth nuclear test. 
 
 North Korea has indicated the broadcasts successfully demoralize its troops. 
 
 According to the BBC, North Korea also broadcasts content, but its broadcasts are usually harder to hear and usually blast strong condemnations of Seoul and its allies. 
 
 Yonhap News reports South Korea's loudspeakers are loud enough to be heard up to 20 kilometers, or about 12 miles, inside North Korea. ||||| A South Korean army soldier, second from left, is seen as medical members treat an unidentified injured person, believed to be a North Korean soldier, at a hospital in Suwon, South Korea, Monday, Nov.... (Associated Press) 
 
 SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Four North Korean soldiers fired 40 rounds at a comrade fleeing into South Korea and hit him five times in the first shooting at the jointly controlled area of the heavily fortified border since 1984, the South's military said Tuesday. 
 
 South Korean soldiers did not fire their weapons, but Monday's incident occurred at a time of high animosity over North Korea's nuclear program and Pyongyang has expressed intense anger over past high-profile defections. 
 
 The soldier is being treated at a South Korean hospital after a five-hour operation for the gunshot wounds he suffered during his escape across the Joint Security Area. His personal details and motive for defection are unknown and his exact medical condition is unclear. 
 
 South Korea's military said he suffered injuries in his internal organs but wasn't in a life-threatening condition. But the Ajou University Medical Center near Seoul said the soldier was relying on a breathing machine after the surgery removed the bullets. Lee Guk-jong, a doctor who leads Ajou's medical team for the soldier, described his patient's condition as "very dangerous" and said the next 10 days might determine whether he recovers. 
 
 On Monday, he first drove a military jeep before he left the vehicle after one of its wheels fell into a ditch. He then fled across the JSA, with fellow soldiers chasing and firing at him, South Korea's military said, citing unspecified surveillance systems installed in the area. 
 
 Suh Wook, chief director of operations for the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers that North Korea fired a total of 40 rounds in a shooting that his office said was believed to have started while the soldier was in the jeep. 
 
 The solider was found beneath a pile of leaves on the southern side of the JSA and South Korean troops crawled there to recover him. A U.N. Command helicopter later transported him to the Ajou medical center, according to South Korean officials. 
 
 The North's official media hasn't reported about the case, but it previously accused of Seoul of kidnapping or enticing its citizens to defect. About 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea, mostly travel via China, since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. 
 
 The JSA is jointly overseen by the American-led U.N. Command and by North Korea, with South Korean and North Korean border guards facing each other only meters (feet) apart. There are a cluster of blue huts straddling blocks of concrete that forms the border line and other building in the area. 
 
 It's located inside the 4-kilometer-wide (2 1/2-mile-wide) mine-strewn Demilitarized Zone, whose northern and southern boundaries are guarded by barbed wire fences and combat troops. It's created as a buffer zone when the three-year Korean War ended with an armistice in 1953. 
 
 Monday's shooting was the first at the Joint Security Area since North Korean and U.N. Command soldiers traded gunfire when a Soviet citizen defected by sprinting to the South Korean sector of the JSA in 1984. A North Korean soldier defected there in 1998 and another in 2007 but neither of those events involved gunfire between the rivals, according to South Korea's military. 
 
 The 1984 exchange of gunfire happened after North Korean soldiers crossed the border and fired, according to the U.N. Command. In Monday's incident, it wasn't known if the North continued firing even after the defector was officially in the southern part of the Joint Security Area. The U.N. Command said Tuesday that an investigation into the incident was underway. 
 
 The Joint Security Area was the site of some bloodshed during the Cold War but there hasn't been major violence there in recent years. In 1976, when North Korean soldiers axed two American army officers to death and the United States responded by flying nuclear-capable B-52 bombers toward the DMZ in an attempt to intimidate the North. 
 
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 Associated Press writer Kim Tong-hyung contributed to this report.
– A rarity in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea today: A soldier from the North defected and claims to have killed two commanding officers in order to do so, reports the Voice of America. Soldiers in the South heard about six shots, then allowed the soldier to cross the DMZ. He is still being interrogated. “We'll see as he's debriefed and it's just a one-off incident, so I don't think there's too much we can read into it besides that at this point,” says an analyst with the International Crisis Group. Pyongyang, not surprisingly, has not confirmed the incident, reports the BBC. The North generally puts only its best soldiers at the border after a careful vetting process, and defections are rare. One reason: The family of a defecting soldier is sure to face harsh punishment, notes VOA.