A North Korean has defected to South Korea by crossing the militarised border in the eastern part of the Korean peninsula, with Yonhap news agency reporting that the defector is a soldier.

Seoul’s military said on Tuesday it had picked up “one suspected North Korean individual on the eastern front and handed them over to the relevant authorities”. Yonhap news agency reported that the person was a staff sergeant.

“Relevant authorities are currently investigating and therefore cannot confirm the detailed process of the defection”, or the individual’s exact motivations and goals, the military said.

Defections by North Koreans across the border are considered risky and relatively rare and most escapers make their way to the South through China or other third countries.

Local media reported that the defector walked along the road by the waterfront in eastern Gangwon province, and was wearing their North Korean military uniform when they were picked up by authorities.

A South Korean defence ministry official said the military took into custody a person who is believed to be North Korean on the eastern front and authorities were questioning the motives for the crossing. The official declined to provide further details.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said they had not detected any unusual movement by the North Korean military around the time of the defection.

This is the second defection across the border between the Koreas in just two weeks, after another North Korean made it across the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea on 8 August.

The defections come as relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years, with the North ramping up weapons testing and bombarding the South with trash-carrying balloons.

The number of successful defections dropped significantly from 2020 after the North sealed its borders – purportedly with shoot-on-sight orders along the land frontier with China – to prevent the spread of Covid-19.

But after border controls eased in 2023, the number of defectors making it to the South almost tripled last year to 196, Seoul said in January, with more elite diplomats and students seeking to escape, up from 67 in 2022.

Last week, North Korean tour operations unexpectedly announced that the country would reopen to foreign tourists this winter.

With Agence France-Presse and Reuters