Advertisement

Missing South Korean official was shot by North after jumping off boat and trying to defect, says Seoul

The official disappeared from a government ship near the military boundary between North and South Korea  - AP
The official disappeared from a government ship near the military boundary between North and South Korea - AP

North Korean forces shot dead a South Korean fisheries official who disappeared off a patrol vessel and ended up in Pyongyang's waters, Seoul's defence ministry said Thursday, calling it an "outrageous act".

The 47-year-old man had been on board a vessel near the western border island of Yeonpyeong, the ministry said in a statement.

After analysing intelligence, the South Korean military had "confirmed that the North fired at a South Korean national found in the northern seas and cremated his body", it said.

"We sternly warn North Korea that all responsibilities for this incident lie with it," it added.

"Our military strongly condemns such an atrocity, and strongly demands North Korea provide explanations and punish those who are responsible," General Ahn Young-ho, who is in charge of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a briefing.

It was not immediately clear how the man came to be in the water. Earlier reports said that his shoes were found on board the patrol vessel, leading to speculation he may have been trying to defect.

In July, a North Korean defector who had fled to the South three years ago sneaked back over the heavily fortified border into the impoverished nation.

North Korea has strict anti-coronavirus controls - GETTY IMAGES
North Korea has strict anti-coronavirus controls - GETTY IMAGES

His crossing prompted North Korean officials to put the border city of Kaesong under lockdown amid fears that he may have carried the coronavirus.

US Forces Korea commander Robert Abrams said earlier this month that North Korean authorities issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus entering the country from China, creating a "buffer zone" in the border with special forces soldiers ready to kill.

The isolated North - whose crumbling health system would struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak - has not confirmed a single case of the disease that has swept the world since first emerging in China, the North's key ally.

Pyongyang closed its border with China in January to try to prevent contamination, and in July state media said it had raised its state of emergency to the maximum level.

While most defections involve North Koreans heading to the South, this year has seen a number of high-profile crossings from the South.

In July, a man who had defected to South Korea three years ago triggered a coronavirus scare when he crossed back over the heavily monitored border into North Korea, which has claimed to have zero cases of the disease.

His arrival prompted North Korean officials to lock down a border city and quarantine thousands of people over fears he may have had coronavirus, though the World Health Organisation later said his test results were inconclusive.

Last week, South Korean police arrested a defector who they said had tried to return to North Korea by breaking into a military training site in South Korea's border town of Cheorwon.