A North Korean soldier who defected to South Korea via the truce village of Panmunjom earlier this week drove a car to the area, the authorities said Tuesday.

"(He) then exited the vehicle and continued fleeing south" across the military demarcation line (MDL) after being shot by North Korean troops, according to the United Nations Command (UNC).

"The individual initially took cover near a building on the southern side of the JSA," it said, using the abbreviation for the Joint Security Area.

He was recovered by South Korean and U.S. soldiers later Monday and transported to a hospital south of Seoul, as he had been hit by multiple gunshots while running away from the North in the heavily-fortified demilitarized zone (DMZ).

He is still unconscious.

The South's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) confirmed that the North Korean man approached the JSA by car at around 3:15 p.m. Monday.

"We closely monitored the situation with a surveillance system," the JCS spokesman Army Col. Roh Jae-cheon said at a press briefing.

There was no report of any exchange of fire between the two Koreas.

The UNC's Military Armistice Commission is looking into the incident, he added. (Yonhap)