[ad_1]
voltage
South Korean military patrols on the border with North Korea
Photo Epa / yonhap South Korea out
North Korea on Sunday asked the South Korean Navy to stop entering its territorial waters as Seoul seeks to recover the body of a South Korean officer who was shot dead at sea by North Korean soldiers.
North Korean official press said Pyongyang would launch its own operations to search for the body and said South Korean operations are likely to increase tensions.
A South Korean fisheries officer was shot dead Tuesday by North Korean soldiers. This is the first time in a decade that a South Korean civilian has been killed in this way.
On Friday, Kim Jong Un offered a rare apology after this “unexpected and shameful” death, Seoul reported, seeking to appease its neighbor to the south, where the killing sparked outrage.
South Korean military officials said the man was questioned while in the water and allegedly expressed a desire to defect, before being killed “on the orders of a higher authority.”
They added that North Korean border guards doused his body in gasoline and burned him, describing this act as “abhorrent.”
“We can never ignore an intrusion into our territorial waters and we seriously warn the South against such actions,” says North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, fearing “another horrible incident” if it happens again.
South Korean President Moon Jae-in called an emergency meeting of security ministers for Sunday and said Seoul had asked North Korea for a joint investigation of the case.
“The quick apologies of the North and its promise to do everything possible to avoid a repeat of the incident have been positively analyzed,” the presidency said in a statement.
North Korea’s apology, particularly Kim’s, is unusual and came at a time when inter-Korean relations stalled, as did the nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
The official North Korean media did not mention this apology.
