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SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea on Sunday called for a joint investigation with North Korea in an effort to resolve key details about the killing of a South Korean official at sea that prompted a rare apology from North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
The South Korean official, whose name has not been released but who worked on a boat monitoring fishing boats near the disputed western maritime border between the two Koreas, was shot by North Korean troops on Tuesday after he was found adrift in North Korean waters. .
In an apology offered Friday, Kim called the events “unexpected” and “unfortunate.” But the two Koreas have disagreed on important details in their accounts of what happened.
South Korea insisted the man had been trying to defect, noting that he had left his shoes in the boat and entered the water wearing a life jacket. South Korean officials told reporters, without elaborating, that they had “special intelligence” indicating that the man had conveyed his intentions to defect to the North Koreans. They also accused the North Korean soldiers of burning the official’s body at sea.
South Korea condemned the murder as a “heinous” and “impressive” act.
But North Korea called the South Korean official an “illegal intruder” who could not explain his presence in North Korean waters in a floating device when confronted by a North Korean patrol boat. North Korea acknowledged that its troops shot and killed the man, but said they were unable to find his body and that his floating device had been burned in accordance with disease control guidelines to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
“Since there are gaps in the findings of South and North Korea, we request a joint investigation so that we can establish the truth as soon as possible,” Suh Choo-suk, deputy director of national security in South Korea, said Sunday. .
The request for a joint investigation followed an emergency meeting between South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in and security-related cabinet ministers early Sunday to discuss the official’s assassination.
After the meeting, South Korea also called for the reestablishment of direct lines between the armies of both Koreas to aid a joint investigation. North Korea cut off all official communication channels with the South in June, accusing Seoul of failing to fulfill its promises to improve economic and other ties with North Korea.
There was no immediate response from the North.
Dozens of ships and planes from the South Korean Navy and Coast Guard have been searching the waters near the disputed inter-Korean border to find the body of the official.
North Korea’s Central News Agency said Sunday that North Korea planned to hand over the body of the official in case he was found in its waters. But he accused South Korean ships of meddling in his search and warned of “another unfortunate incident.”
South Korea said its ships had not crossed the Northern Boundary Line, a western maritime border unilaterally established by the United States-led United Nations Command at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. Although South Korea patrols the waters south of the Northern Boundary Line, the North does not recognize it. It insists on another border further south and periodically accuses the south of violating its territorial waters.
