A North Korean civilian voluntarily crossed the heavily mined land border between the two countries, aided by the South's military in a delicate 20-hour operation, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff

The South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military identified and tracked the individual near the central-west section of the military demarcation line and conducted a “guiding operation” before taking the person into custody Thursday night.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea since the peninsula was divided by war in the 1950s, but defections across the land border are relatively rare.