A North Korean soldier defected to South Korea early on Saturday, the South Korean military said.

The defector crossed the military demarcation line separating the two countries and was spotted by surveillance equipment, South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

"Related agencies plan to investigate him regarding the details of how he came to the South," it said.

The escape across the heavily fortified border separating the two Koreas comes as both sides have made moves to reduce tensions despite slow progress on denuclearization talks between Washington and Pyongyang. 

On Friday, South Korea's Defense Ministry said both militaries had completed the removal of 20 border guard posts and a number of landmines from an area in which they plan to conduct joint searches for the remains of soldiers killed in the 1950-53 Korean War.

Defections across the North-South border are rare and dangerous. Last November, a North Korean soldier was wounded when his colleagues fired on him as he made a daring escape across the border at the Panmunjom truce village. 

cw/sms (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

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