“We confirm that North Korea committed a brutal act by shooting a South Korean and burning his body,” the ministry said, calling on Pyongyang to apologize and resolve the incident.
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The agencies said the 47-year-old official disappeared on Monday from an inspection vessel inspecting possible illegal fishing in the maritime border area between the two countries off the South Korean island of Jonpjjong. According to the South Korean media, after the man, only shoes were to remain on board, and his disappearance was recorded by colleagues after he did not show up for lunch.
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Due to the disruption of communication channels with Pyongyang in June, it is not clear at this time how the South Korean intelligence services were able to confirm the details of the official’s disappearance.
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Communication interruption
In June, Pyongyang blew up a joint office of the two Korean countries in Kesong. The city lies on the North Korean side, and the office on its territory was supposed to symbolize future closer cooperation between the two states. The blast came after the North Korean military threatened to return to demilitarized zones if South Korean activists did not stop using balloons to send leaflets criticizing the North Korean regime.
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“Our military condemns this act and urges the North to provide an explanation for it and to punish those associated with it. We also warn North Korea that all the responsibility associated with the incident lies with it, “said the South Korean ministry.
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It is not clear why the soldiers of the isolated communist state shot the South Koreans, but it is not excluded, according to Jonhap, that they acted in accordance with the anti-coronavirus proliferation orders that the country could have imposed.
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In July, a South Korean returnee triggered an alarm in the DPRK, for which the authorities closed the border town of Kesong and ordered quarantine for thousands of people. The World Health Organization later said that the results of this man’s test were inconclusive. North Korea has said since the beginning of the pandemic that it has no cases of coronavirus infection.
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If the reports are true, this would be the first death of a South Korean civilian in the North since 2008. At that time, a North Korean soldier shot a 53-year-old woman who allegedly traveled to a restricted zone during a visit to the jointly run Mount Kumgang area, writes The Guardian.
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The AP agency wrote that the disappearance and shooting of a South Korean official will only worsen the already freezing relations between the two countries.
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