A North Korean soldier bolted through a heavily fortified border area to defect to South Korea on Saturday, the second such defection in a little over a year.

South Korean soldiers found the defector moving south of a demarcation line between the two Koreas, then escorted the man to safety,  South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

Authorities said they plan to question him about the details of his escape.

Last November, a North Korean soldier was critically wounded in a jointly controlled area after he fled to the South amid a hail of bullets fired by his former comrades.

Saturday’s defection comes as the North and South Korea push to implement a wide-ranging military agreement reached in September to reduce tensions across their border.