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Updated: September 27, 2020 10:50:01 am
People watch a television that shows a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, left, and South Korean President Moon Jae-in during a news program at the Seoul Train Station in Seoul, South Korea, on Friday, September 25, 2020 (AP Photo)
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently issued a rare sorry to your south korean counterpart Moon Jae-in for the murder of a South Korean official at a time when relations between the two countries are at a standstill.
What has happened?
Yesterday, South Korea accused North Korea of shooting at an unarmed South Korean official and claimed that North Korean soldiers subsequently cremated his body. South Korea identified the official as a 47-year-old man working for the Western Sea Fisheries Management Service of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries.
When did North Korea apologize?
On Friday, the North Korean Unification Front Department, which deals with South-North relations, sent a letter addressed to the Seoul presidential office, in which Jong-un described the events and expressed regret. “I have apologetic thoughts towards President Moon Jae-in and fellow South Americans for the unfortunate incident that took place in our waters,” the statement said according to a report published in The Korea Herald. The letter also mentioned that the official was killed by North Korean soldiers.
According to the South Korean Ministry of Defense, on September 22, the 47-year-old official was on an inspection boat and had been floating in waters north of the Northern Limit Line (NLL) in the Yellow Sea when he was shot. by soldiers. aboard a North Korean patrol boat. The ministry maintains that after firing the shots, the soldiers cremated the floating corpse by pouring oil on it. The North Korean letter, however, differs from South Korea’s official version, saying that North Korean soldiers did not burn the body, but only the “flotation device.”
Has an incident like this happened before?
In 2008, a North Korean guard shot and killed a South Korean tourist on Mount Kumgang as she entered an area that was off-limits to South Korean tourists. He entered this area while walking along a beach. After the incident, North Korea mourned the death of the tourist and refused to participate in a joint investigation of the incident. The incident also led to the suspension of the Mount Kumgang tourism program, which had been active since 1998.
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What does the apology mean for Korean relations?
According to a report published in The Korea Times, experts see North Korea’s “unexpected apology” as an effort by the country to maintain the status quo between the two Koreas and is an attempt not to draw international criticism of the incident.
One interpretation of the incident itself is that the corpse was burned to keep COVID-19 out of the country, especially as North Korea is preparing for a military parade on October 10 to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Party of Workers.
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