North officer defects to South

A North Korean officer defected to the South across the heavily armed border, the first officer to do so in about 10 years, a South Korean military official said.

A Joint Chiefs of Staff official said the defection took place Sunday. Yonhap news agency quoted a government official as saying it was near the Panmunjom truce village set up in the demilitarized zone.

The officer was identified only by his family name, Ri. South Korea usually keeps high-profile defectors under wraps for months or even years as it debriefs them on the inner workings of the secretive, communist North.