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North Korean State Council Chairman Kim Jong-unusually apologized to South Korea for the murder of a South Korean official who had been killed in a North Korean army shootout off the coast of Soyeonpyeong Island, the west coast. of the Korean peninsula. However, North Korea strongly denied the announcement by the South Korean military authorities that the North Korean military had burned the body. Reporter Kim Hwan-yong reports from Seoul.
In a notice sent to South Korea on behalf of the North Korean Unification Front on the 25th, President Kim Jong-un officially apologized for shooting and killing a government official who recently disappeared off the coast of Soyeonpyeong Island. , the west coast of South Korea.
Seo-hoon, head of South Korea’s Blue House National Security Office, presented the full text of the North Korean part of the notice at a briefing that day.
[녹취: 서훈 실장] “Comrade Kim Jong-un, Chairman of the State Council, is very sorry that instead of helping South Koreans who report a malicious viral disease threat, something unexpected happened in our waters, adding great disappointment to the President Moon Jae-in and the South Koreans. He said to convey the meaning of the thought.President Kim’s official apology came to light a day after the South Korean military authorities announced that a Korean fishing instructor from the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries was shot dead by North Korean forces and damaged.
In addition to President Kim’s apology, the notice also included the position of the North Korean leadership.
The notice said that North Korea’s leadership said that something has happened that should not have happened and that it has instructed the establishment of a system that records the entire process of handling repression at sea so that such incidents are not repeated and that there are no errors or misunderstandings in the repression process.
In addition, he said that he has repeatedly emphasized taking the necessary security measures so that the relationship of trust and respect between the two Koreas, which has been built in recent years, has not been destroyed because of this unfortunate incident.
Earlier on the 24th, the South Korean government declared the incident anti-human and urged North Korea to apologize, punish the person in charge, and prevent it from recurring.
The swift official apology from North Korean leaders, including President Kim, is an analysis that this incident takes into account the impact on inter-Korean relations and international public opinion.
I am Shin Beom-cheol, director of the Center for Foreign Affairs and Security at the National Institute for Strategic Studies, a private research institute.
[녹취: 신범철 센터장] “I think I felt a sense of crisis in a situation where public opinion not only in Korea but also internationally deteriorated rapidly. Kim Jong-un showed himself trying to make a common country. However, it seems that there was a report that the part of bodily harm was reflected quite badly in international public opinion, and I felt the need to handle the situation in this regard.In the notice, North Korea also explained the details of the incident they investigated.
According to the advisory, the North Korean military was dispatched on the night of the 22nd after receiving a report of parallel work from a fisheries trade office indicating that an unidentified man was found in North Korean territorial waters near Geumdong-ri, Gangnyeong-gun, South Hwanghae Province.
North Korea said: “I approached the illegal intruder on a floating object up to 80 meters and asked for identification, but the first or twice, he muttered and did not respond, saying,” Anyone from the ROK. The situation has been created as if the objective of the group were to flee ”.
“According to the statements of some soldiers, it is said that they have seen an act of trying to put something on the body while lying down.” , The distance at this time was 40 to 50 meters. “
North Korea said: “After shooting, there was no movement or sound, so we got closer and searched up to 10 meters, but the unidentified intruder was not on the float and a large amount of blood was found. In accordance with emergency quarantine regulations, the floats in which the intruder was burned were incinerated at sea. “
North Korea also refuted the South Korean government’s use of expressions such as ‘barrage’ for this incident, saying: “I cannot help but express great regret for using expressions with a deep confrontational color.”
North Korea’s explanation is expected to be controversial because it differs from the announcement by South Korean military authorities.
In particular, North Korea directly denied the South Korean military authorities’ announcement that “the body was burned and damaged.”
National security officer Seo Hoon said, “We have to continue to investigate and understand the areas where there are some differences with the results of the Korean military intelligence-based trial.”
Unification Minister Lee In-young attended an emergency plenary meeting of the National Assembly’s Transportation and Foreign Affairs Committee on the 25th and raised the need for dialogue with North Korea on this case.
[녹취: 이인영 장관] “First of all, I think it is something that will materialize through this process of dialogue and restoration of relations between the two Koreas. I look forward to discussing practical and concrete measures to prevent these problems from happening again once inter-Korean dialogue and contact is established. “Meanwhile, Korea’s National Intelligence Service said: “It appears that President Kim Jong-un has not received a prior report on this incident.”
Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Byung-ki, secretary of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, met with reporters just after the secret meeting on the afternoon of the 25th and said: “There was a comment from NIS chief Park Ji-won, that it would be the case instead of a judgment or a basis. ” In response to the notice from North Korea’s side, the NIS said: “Since the recent West Sea War, North Korea has never expressed an intention to apologize in this way. They are said to be making judgments ”.
This is the news from the Seoul VOA, Kim Hwan-yong.
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