South Korea accused North Korea of ​​shooting dead a defecting official

(Dan Tri) – South Korea’s Ministry of National Defense accused North Korea of ​​shooting dead a defecting South Korean official and burning his body.

A Korean navy ship performs a patrol mission.

“According to our military’s comprehensive analysis based on various intelligence information, North Korea found this man in its waters and committed the heinous act of shooting him to death and burning his body.

Previously, a 47-year-old official from the Korean Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries went missing from a 500-ton ship before noon on September 21, while on duty on a patrol ship in outer waters.

`Our military strongly condemns such action and strongly calls on North Korea to provide an explanation and punish those responsible. We also sternly warn North Korea that any responsibility for

According to officials at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the above official is believed to have jumped into the sea on September 21 to defect to North Korea and drifted into North Korean waters.

According to Yonhap, after discovering South Korean officials at sea at around 3:30 pm on September 21, crew members on a North Korean ship wore anti-gas masks and interrogated South Korean officials from a distance, while

The Korean official was then wearing a life jacket and clinging to a floating object.

JCS officials said that North Korea’s shooting of people was part of the country’s Covid-19 quarantine instructions.

According to Reuters, North Korea has so far not announced any cases of Covid-19, while the country has deployed comprehensive efforts to respond to the epidemic.

On September 23, South Korea sent a letter to North Korea to discuss the incident, through the communication channel between the United Nations Command led by the US and Pyongyang.

South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries said the missing official’s colleagues only found his shoes on the ship, then reported his disappearance to the Coast Guard.

An official from the Korean Coast Guard said the authorities conducted checks on colleagues and searched the ship to look for items related to the missing official, thereby finding clues to the case.

This is the first time since July 2008 that a South Korean citizen was shot dead in North Korea.