A North Korean soldier on Sunday crossed the central Gangwon Province area of the Military Demarcation Line (MDL), a heavily fortified demilitarised zone that separates North and South Korea.
According to South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the soldier was tracked this morning (local time), after which they conducted a guided manoeuvre to capture him, as per an MBC report.
The JCS and related authorities will now investigate the possible defection across the inter-Korean border, as well as the soldier's motives, the report added.
A Yonhap news report has labelled it a "presumed defection".
This is reportedly the third attempt to cross the inter-Korean border since the Lee Jae Myung government came into power in South Korea in June. However, this soldier is the first to do so since then, as the previous two attempts were made by civilians.
The first of the previous two attempts was made by a civilian male, as per a local media report. He was detected using military surveillance equipment near the central-western front of the MDL in the wee hours of July 3. He was found in a shallow stream, approximately one metre deep, in that region.
He was interrogated by South Korean authorities later that month, at which time he expressed a clear intent to defect.
On July 31, another male civilian crossed the border via the neutral waters of the Han River off the Gyodong Island in Ganghwa County in Incheon, using plastic foam tied to his body, another local media report said.
He was tracked by the South Korean military using thermal tracking equipment. After he crossed the maritime border, he was promptly captured by the military and handed over to the relevant authorities.