The soldier was identified by the surname Oh and is 24-years-old. North Korean soldiers shot over 40 bullets at him and he was hit four to five times while escaping. The soldier's surgeon, Lee Cook-jong, said Oh had four major wounds from the daring defection - captured on a United Nations video feed.

Oh crossed the heavily guarded 2.5-mile border that separates the two Koreas called the demilitarized zone. South Korea soldiers found Oh in a pile of leaves in the Joint Security Area, a place on the border where officials from both sides can come to meet. Oh was evacuated to a hospital for surgery, and lost more than half of his blood by the time he got there. He was in stable condition after several surgeries, a marked improvement from ...