By Alex Jensen
SEOUL
South Korea's military insisted Tuesday that it had not let down the country's guard when a teenage North Korean soldier was able to initially evade attention while crossing into the South a day earlier.
"It was foggy and the border area is thick in the woods, which effectively obstructed our view," a Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) officer was quoted as saying by local news agency Yonhap.
The border that separates the Koreas is heavily guarded on both sides as a legacy of the unresolved 1950-53 Korean War.
According to an official JCS release, the 19-year-old "went AWOL on June 7," before making a weeklong journey to South Korea via the eastern province of Gangwon.
He finally arrived near a South Korean guard post Sunday night, although it was not until around 8 a.m. (0000GMT) the next morning that he was discovered and "expressed his will to defect."
It was revealed by Seoul officials Monday that the enlistee was repeatedly beaten while serving in North Korea.
Not since 2012 has a soldier from the North been able to defect via the inter-Korean border -- on that occasion a North Korean serviceman was able to walk right up to a South Korean barrack and knock on the door.
The most common route of defection for North Koreans seeking a safe haven is via China, which in itself has become even tougher since leader Kim Jong-un took power over three years ago, according to refugees' testimony.
Even following escapes, however, Beijing has a policy of repatriating North Korean refugees, classifying them as economic migrants.
Defectors have been known to take their own lives rather than be sent back to North Korea, which takes a dim view of unauthorized departures.
Still, official statistics show that nearly 1,400 people from the reclusive North made it to South Korea last year.
