The escape across the heavily guarded border between the countries took place on Sunday.
South Korean military identified the person "near the military demarcation line, tracked and monitored him and carried out a standard operation to apprehend him”, it says in a statement from South Korea's defense staff.
Defection from North to South Korea is relatively rare due to the strict surveillance at the border. Since Korea was divided in the mid-1950s, however, tens of thousands have fled the communist dictatorship in the north to democracy in the south.
