A North Korean soldier made a rare defection across the treacherous border zone into the South early on Tuesday, according to Seoul’s defence ministry.

The staff sergeant escaped to the northeastern county of Goseong in Gangwon Province, reported the Yonhap news agency.

He was taken into custody for questioning by South Korean guards who had been monitoring his movements. No further details have been released about his escape methods or motivation.

The defection followed another successful attempt by a North Korean citizen earlier this month on the west coast.

Escapes directly from North to South are infrequent due to the high risks of increased surveillance, landmines and a shoot-to-kill order on the northern side of the border.

In 2017, border guard Oh Chong Song made global headlines when he was shot five times during a desperate dash for freedom across the highly fortified demilitarised zone (DMZ) separating the two countries. He survived and now lives in the South.

“In their situation I would have fired the gun. It’s not a matter of friendship,” he later told NBC News about his comrades who shot him, saying he would have done the same thing in their shoes.

In 2020, a civilian defector and former gymnast stunned the South Korean authorities by reportedly running unscathed across the 2.5-mile-wide border zone, evading barricades, sentry posts, mines and vaulting a 3-metre fence without triggering sensors.

Two years later, it was reported he had made the perilous journey back and his fate is unknown.

Most escapees make their way to freedom through China, Russia and other third countries before seeking asylum in South Korea, although routes have become increasingly dangerous due to criminal gangs and a harsh crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

Beijing has been internationally criticised over the past two years for forcibly repatriating hundreds of North Koreans to the reclusive regime, where they are at risk of torture, imprisonment or even execution.

More than 1,000 North Koreans used to resettle in the South annually, but that number has dwindled to the low hundreds since 2020 due to extreme border closures during the Covid-19 pandemic and fortified surveillance and border posts.