South Korean 'defects to communist North'

State media has claimed that a South Korean man defected to the communist North after walking across the land-mined demilitarised zone between the two nations.

The countries are still technically at war, as the armistice following their 1950-53 conflict has never been replaced by a formal peace treaty.

Defector Kang Dong-rim, 30, is believed to be a former Samsung Electronics semiconductor unit worker and later an employee on a pig farm, Sky News reports.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said: "He is beside himself with joy for having accomplished this heroic deed. He is now under the warm care of a relevant organ."

In 2008, Chosum Ilbo reported that 2,809 North Koreans had defected to the South, but crossings the other way are rare, with the last documented South-North defection taking place four years ago.