North Korea shot dead a South Korean defector: officials

This photo taken on April 24, 2018 shows South Korean soldiers standing at a security fence off North Korea on South Korean-controlled Yeonpyeong Island near the disputed waters of the Yellow Sea at dawn. – North Korean forces shot dead a southern fisheries official who disappeared from a patrol boat and ended up in Pyongyang waters, the Seoul Defense Ministry said on September 24, 2020, calling it an “outrageous act.” (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP)

SEOUL – North Korean soldiers shot dead a suspected South Korean defector at sea and burned his body as a precaution for the coronavirus after he was questioned in the water for several hours, Seoul military officials said Thursday.

It is the first killing of a southern citizen by North Korean forces in a decade and comes with Pyongyang on high alert over the pandemic and stalled inter-Korean relations.

The fisheries official disappeared from a patrol boat near the western border island of Yeonpyeong on Monday, a South Korean military official told AFP.

More than 24 hours later, North Korean forces located him in its waters and interrogated him from a patrol boat, he said, and the Yonhap news agency added that his interrogator was wearing protective gear.

He was killed about six hours after being found, according to the official.

“He was shot dead in the water,” he said. “North Korean soldiers poured oil on his body and burned him in the water.

“We assess that it was carried out under the North’s anti-coronavirus measure,” he added.

Pyongyang closed its borders and declared an emergency to try to protect itself against the virus that first emerged in neighboring China.

The man was wearing a life jacket and his shoes had been found aboard the South Korean ship, the official said, indicators pointing to he entered the water voluntarily.

“We have obtained information that he had expressed his intention to defect while being questioned,” he added.

He declined to go into details about the source of the information.

But the South Korean military is known to intercept the radio communications of the Northern forces.

The killing took place after an “order from a higher authority,” Yonhap said, citing South Korean officials.

The Seoul Defense Ministry condemned the shooting as a “scandalous act”.

“We strongly advise North Korea that all responsibility for this incident rests with it,” it said in a statement.

‘Shoot to kill’

The isolated North, whose dilapidated healthcare system would struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak, has not confirmed a single case of the disease that has spread across the world.

Pyongyang closed its border with China in January to try to prevent contamination, and in July state media said it had raised its state of emergency to the highest level.

That same month, North Korean officials closed the border city of Kaesong after a defector who had fled to the South three years ago sneaked back across the heavily fortified border, amid fears that he may have carried the coronavirus.

The commander of the United States Forces in Korea, Robert Abrams, said earlier this month that North Korean authorities had issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China, creating a “buffer zone” in border.

This week’s shooting is the first time in 10 years that North Korean forces have killed a Southerner.

In November 2010, the Pyongyang Army bombed Yeonpyeong Island, close to this week’s incident, killing two civilians and two Marines.

It came months after a torpedo fired from a North Korean submarine sank South Korea’s warship Cheonan, killing 46 sailors, though Pyongyang denies responsibility.

In 2008, a North Korean soldier shot dead a South Korean tourist who entered a forbidden area at the Mount Kumgang North Tourist Complex, prompting Seoul to suspend money-spinning tours.

/ MUF

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