Dramatic footage shows a North Korean defector's harrowing escape to the South

The United Nations Command has released dramatic video of a North Korean military defector's escape to South Korea last week. The defector, whose name has not been released, can be seen racing toward the border in a car before crashing and fleeing on foot. North Korean soldiers opened fire on the defector — he was shot at least five times, The Guardian reports — and South Korean forces managed to crawl to where he was wounded and drag him to safety.

"The reason that he defected, risking death and facing a barrage of gunshots, was because he had positive hopes about South Korea," said the soldier's lead surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, adding: "He is fine. He is not going to die."

The United Nations Command claims the North Korean soldiers violated the armistice agreement at the DMZ by using their weapons in the region on the defecting soldier. Watch the dramatic video below. Jeva Lange

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