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North Korean soldiers are seen at a military fence next to a guard post in the North Korean border county of Kaepoong, as seen through the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) from the South Korean island of Ganghwa on September 25, 2020. – Leader North Korean Kim Jong Un apologized on September 25 for the killing of a South Korean at sea, calling it “an unexpected and shameful event,” the Seoul presidential office said. (Photo by – / YONHAP / AFP)
SEOUL, South Korea – North Korea on Sunday warned the South Korean navy to stop crossing its territorial waters as ships search for the body of a Seoul official who was shot dead at sea by Pyongyang soldiers.
State media said North Korea will begin its own search for the body and warned that the South’s naval operations threaten to escalate tensions.
The fisheries official was shot dead by North Korean soldiers on Tuesday, the first killing of a South Korean civilian by Pyongyang forces in a decade, prompting a rare public apology from leader Kim Jong Un.
The Seoul army accused North Korean soldiers of pouring oil on the man’s body and burning him after shooting him.
The death was a “terrible case that should not have happened,” the official North KCNA news agency said on Sunday, adding that Pyongyang was organizing a search operation in its waters to help locate the body.
He said the country was considering “procedures and ways to deliver any corpse brought by the tide to the south side … in case we find it during the operation.”
But he warned that South Korean ships near the scene of the incident had crossed into North Korean waters.
“We can never overlook any intrusion into our territorial waters and we seriously warn the south side not to do so,” KCNA said.
“It awakens our due vigilance, as it may lead to another terrible incident.”
South Korea on Saturday demanded that North Korea carry out a further investigation into the shooting and said it would request a joint investigation if necessary.
North Korea’s apologies are unusual, and Kim’s message came with inter-Korean ties in a deep freeze and nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington stalled.
There have been no reports from the North Korean media on the content of Kim’s letter.
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