World

A North Korean soldier killed two of his officers Saturday and defected to South Korea across the countries' heavily armed border in a rare crossing that prompted South Korean troops to immediately beef up their border patrol, officials said.

The soldier shot his platoon and company commanders before crossing the western side of the Demilitarized Zone at around noon, a Defence Ministry official said, citing the soldier's statement after he was taken into custody by South Korean border guards.

The official declined to be named because questioning by authorities was ongoing. He said the soldier used a loudspeaker to let South Korean border guards know his intention to defect after the killings. The official said the motive behind the defection was unclear.

No unusual military movement was detected from the North Korean side of the border after the crossing, but South Korea immediately instructed its border troops to step up their guard, a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official said.

There was no immediate comment from communist North Korea's state-run media.

Defections across the land border are rare, though North Koreans occasionally come to the South by boat. Last year, a North Korean civilian defected to the South across the land border.

The last defection across the Demilitarized Zone by a North Korean soldier occurred in 2010, officials said. Another soldier and an officer also defected to the South across the border in two separate crossings in 2008.

The vast majority of North Koreans fleeing their homeland travel through China and Southeast Asia before arriving in the South.

More than 24,000 North Koreans have arrived in the South since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a cease-fire, not a peace treaty.

The area where Saturday's defection took place is along the route to a South Korean-financed industrial complex in the North Korean border town of Kaesong, officials said.

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Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report from Busan, South Korea.