South Korea accuses North Korean border troops of murdering and burning a South Korean official. North Korea remains silent.
The murder is said to have taken place near the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong, about ten kilometers from the border with North Korea. The officer of the Ministry of Fisheries was on board a patrol boat.
For reasons still unclear, the 47-year-old man with a life jacket on board disappeared, leaving his shoes on the ship. South Korea thinks he may have planned to defect to North Korea. That doesn’t happen often, but it has happened.
Life jacket
According to South Korean authorities, a North Korean patrol boat intercepted the man in the sea. The North Koreans put on gas masks and interrogated the South Korean from a distance.
In time, the order would have come from above to kill the man. The soldiers then shot the swimming man. They doused his body with oil and set it on fire.
According to South Korea, that may have been an anti-coronavirus measure. The burned body was later found in the water not far off the North Korean coast.
Appropriate measures
South Korean President Moon Jae-in calls the incident shocking and intolerable. He urged North Korea to take appropriate action.
Although there are frequent incidents at the border between South and North Korea, it is rare for civilians to be involved. In 2008, a South Korean tourist was shot by a North Korean soldier at Mount Kumgang.
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