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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has apologized for the “unexpected” and “unfortunate” killing of a South Korean official this week after he crossed the countries’ maritime borders, possibly in an attempt to defect.
In a message to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, Kim said he was “very sorry” and added that the incident, which has increased tensions between the two countries, “should not have happened,” according to reports from the media.
The message said the official had been shot as part of measures to prevent people from bringing the coronavirus into the country, South National Security Director Suh Hoon said at a briefing on Friday.
Kim reportedly apologized for having “disappointed” Moon, adding that he hoped the incident would not damage inter-Korean ties, which deteriorated in the summer due to propaganda campaigns by North Korean defectors living in the South. It is highly unusual for a North Korean leader to publicly apologize for any issue to his South Korean counterpart.
His apology may be intended to reduce tensions between the two Koreas after Seoul this week condemned the official’s death as an “atrocity” and demanded that those responsible be punished.
North Korea’s explanation contradicted claims made by the South Korean Defense Ministry on Thursday that the official’s body had been burned.
According to North Korea’s account, troops in a patrol boat near the maritime border initially fired blank bullets at the unidentified man after he could not explain why he was in North Korean waters. When he tried to flee, they fired more than 10 actual rounds.
He added that troops had set fire to the “material” the man had been using to stay afloat in line with anti-coronavirus measures, but had not burned the victim, claiming that he had disappeared into the water.
Earlier, a South Korean military official claimed that soldiers had questioned the man, who was wearing a life jacket, for several hours while he was still in the water. The soldiers wore gas masks and protective clothing, the official added.
The 47-year-old official with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries disappeared from a government ship on Monday while investigating allegations of unauthorized fishing near Yeonpyeong Island, located south of the de facto maritime border.
Some experts were skeptical of claims that the man had been trying to defect. While more than 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea in the past two decades, defections from South to North are rare.
“A public servant defecting to North Korea? I think it sounds a bit strange since he has stable job security, “said Choi Kang, vice president of the Asan Institute for Political Studies in Seoul. “Why did North Korea shoot a man who was voluntarily defecting to North Korea?”
The killing is the first of a South Korean citizen in the North since 2008, when North Korean soldiers shot a female tourist who they claimed had entered a restricted area during a trip to the Mount Kumgang resort.
North Korea has imposed strict measures to deter people from entering the country illegally, fearing they could spread the coronavirus. North Korea insists it has not recorded a single case of the virus since the outbreak began in neighboring China.
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.
In July, a man who had defected to South Korea three years ago caused a coronavirus scare when he crossed the heavily armed border into North Korea.
His arrival prompted North Korean officials to shut down a border city and quarantine thousands of people out of fear he may have had the virus, although South Korean officials claimed the man was not a carrier of the virus.
Earlier this month, the commander of the US Forces in Korea, Robert Abrams, said North Korean authorities issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus from entering the country from China, creating a “buffer zone. “at the border with special forces soldiers ready to kill. .
The scene of this week’s shooting, in the Yellow Sea west of the Korean peninsula, has been an occasional source of tension between the countries, which are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice but not in a peace treaty. .
In November 2010, North Korea bombed Yeonpyeong Island, killing four people and provoking retaliation from the South in one of the worst fighting since the end of the Korean War.
Earlier that year, 46 South Korean sailors were killed when their ship, the Cheonan, was hit by a North Korean torpedo off the coast of nearby Baengyeong Island. The North, however, denied having attacked the ship.
