WATCH: The moment a North Korean defector made his dash for freedom

Fellow border guards were only steps behind a North Korean soldier who made a mad defection dash into the South, a newly-released video shows.

Footage captured by the United Nations Command shows a North Korean 4WD ripping through a forested area close to the border at frantic speed.

The military vehicle burns toward Bridge 72, linking the divided Korean nations, and crosses into the South with soldiers from the Korean People’s Army in immediate pursuit.

The defector exits the vehicle, frantically searching for a safe place to hide as a North Korean soldier makes an incursion into hostile southern territory before making an immediate and hasty retreat back north.

Two South Korean soldiers run around the corner of building to the defector, before they too retreat. The defector then follows in their direction.

He's then seen sprawled on the ground having been shot during the escape. It's not until 12 minutes later that South Korean soldiers find prostate on the ground.

They crawl toward the stricken defector and drag him away.

The defecting soldier, whose rank and identity have not been disclosed, was critically wounded, having been hit five or six times in the hail of bullets as he made his desperate escape on November 13.

He was flown by a US military helicopter to a hospital in Suwon, south of Seoul.

Doctors announced on Wednesday that he had regained consciousness, having had two operations to extract the bullets, and his breathing was stable and unassisted.

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"He is fine," lead surgeon Lee Cook-Jong said at a press conference in Suwon.

"He is not going to die."

In a statement, the hospital said he required “intensive care, detailed tests and observation as there is a chance his condition may worsen due to infections of his bullet wounds”.

The soldier showed signs of depression and possible trauma, in addition to a serious case of parasites that has complicated his treatment, the hospital said.

He is expected to recover.

In firing shots after the soldier as he crossed the Military Demarcation Line (often called the "Demilitarised Zone", or DMZ), an official from the UN Command said North Korea had violated the 1953 armistice agreement, which marked the cessation of hostilities in the Korean War.

The key findings of the special investigation team are that the North Korean People’s Army violated the armistice agreement by one, firing weapons across the MDL, and two, by actually crossing the MDL temporarily, Chad Carroll, Director of Public Affairs for the UNC, told reporters.