A North Korean soldier who defected to the South under a hail of bullets in November has confessed to committing murder in the North, a news report said Tuesday.
South Korean officials said they had no comment, noting the questioning of the 24-year-old soldier had not yet wrapped up.
Oh, identified only by his surname, has told investigators that he had committed a crime involving murder in the North, the conservative Dong-A Ilbo daily said, citing an unidentified intelligence official.
The soldier's defection made headlines worldwide with footage showing him driving to the border at the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone before dashing across as his comrades tried to kill him.
The soldier has been recovering in hospital from multiple gunshot wounds and doctors will decide this week whether to discharge him, Yonhap news agency said, in which case he will be transferred to an adaptation centre for defectors.
There is no extradition treaty between North and South Korea.
Troops, cameras, radiation: China preps for N. Korea crisis
China has ramped up security along its border with North Korea, installing new surveillance cameras, deploying extra security forces and operating radiation detectors as it braces for a potential crisis.
Bellicose rhetoric between Washington and Pyongyang has raised fears in China of a conflict that could send millions of North Korean refugees across the 1,420-kilometre (880-mile) border, an … read more
