The North Korean official press said Pyongyang would start its own operations to search for the body and said the South Korean operations were likely to increase tensions.
A South Korean fisheries officer was shot dead Tuesday by North Korean soldiers. This is the first time in a decade that a South Korean civilian has been killed in this way.
On Friday, Kim Jong Un offered an exceptional apology after this “unexpected and shameful” death, according to Seoul, seeking to appease his southern neighbor, where the murder caused outrage.
South Korean military officials said the man was subjected to interrogation while in the water and that he allegedly expressed his desire to desert, before being killed by “order from a higher authority”.
They added that the North Korean border guards soaked his body with gasoline and burned him, describing this act as “abhorrent”.
“We can never ignore an intrusion into our territorial waters and we seriously warn the South against such actions,” says the official North Korean news agency KCNA, fearing “another horrible incident” if it happens again.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called an emergency meeting of security ministers today and said Seoul had asked the North for a joint investigation into the case.
“The quick apologies from the North and its promise to do everything possible to prevent the incident from recurring have been analyzed positively,” said the presidency in a statement.
North Korea’s apology, particularly Kim’s, is unusual, and came at a time when inter-Korean relations stagnated, as did the nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
The North Korean official media did not mention this apology.
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