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Image source, TAE-HYUN PARK / Getty Images
The Yonhap news agency, citing unidentified intelligence in Seoul, reported that a South Korean fisheries officer who disappeared on Monday may have been shot dead by North Korean troops and then cremated after trying to escape to the North. Weld.
The official was reportedly missing from a South Korean fishing patrol boat as he was traveling about 10 km south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), a disputed, closed military control boundary serving as the actual maritime boundary between North and South Korea, according to Reuters.
It is not clear exactly what caused the 47-year-old official’s shooting, but the North Korean military may have acted in order against the corona virus, TTX Yonhap cited multiple sources.
The US military commander in South Korea said earlier this month that the North Korean military had been “shot to kill” to prevent the corona virus from entering the country.
The Aljazeera news agency, citing South Korean military sources, confirmed that this happened, and that South Korea is now accusing North Korea of killing the official in a ‘brutal’ manner and calling on Pyongyang to punish those involved. worried.
“North Korea found the man in its waters and committed the atrocity by shooting and burning his body, according to our military’s exhaustive analysis of multiple intelligence sources.” South Korean room said in a statement released by TTX Yonhap.
“Our army strongly condemns this atrocity and calls on North Korea to provide an explanation and punish those responsible,” the statement added.
“We also sternly warn North Korea that it must take full responsibility for this incident.”
Meanwhile, South Korea’s Defense Ministry and National Intelligence Service did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
While the majority of interdisciplinary defections were from North Koreans to the south, this year there were some crossings from south to north.
In July, a man who defected to South Korea three years ago sparked fears in North Korea about infection with the corona virus. He crossed the heavily monitored border back to North Korea, which is believed to have not been infected.
His arrival prompted North Korean officials to shut down a border city and quarantine thousands of people for fear it could be infected with the corona virus, although the World Health Organization later said it ended. The results of his tests are inconclusive.
Last week, South Korean police arrested a fugitive they believe tried to return to South Korea by breaking into a military training site in the South Korean border city of Cheorwon.
