Border tensions have flared in recent months as the two Koreas have traded Cold War-style psychological warfare, with North Korea sending thousands of trash-filled balloons toward the South and South Korea blasting anti-Pyongyang propaganda through loudspeakers.

An unidentified North Korean man crossed into South Korea with the assistance of Seoul’s military through a heavily mined land border Thursday. He was taken into custody after the crossing, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff.

A North Korean civilian voluntarily crossed the heavily mined land border between the two countries, aided by the South's military in a delicate 20-hour operation, Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff