North killed S. Korean official, Seoul says

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA • A South Korean fisheries official who went missing from a patrol boat this week was picked up from the sea by North Korean troops and executed, in what appeared to be an ill-fated attempt to defect, Seoul's Defence Ministry said Thursday.

The North Korean troops, wearing gas masks, then doused the man's body in oil and set it on fire, seemingly to prevent the possible spread of the coronavirus, the ministry said in a statement.

The 47-year-old disappeared from the ship on Monday just south of the two countries' disputed maritime boundary. Dressed in a lifejacket and clutching a floating object, he was found a day later by North Korean personnel.

Citing intelligence sources, the military said the man appeared to have been questioned at sea, north of the disputed boundary and about 40 km from where he went missing, before he was executed on an “order from a superior authority.”

“Our military strongly condemns such an atrocity, and strongly demands North Korea provide explanations and punish those who are responsible,” said Gen. Ahn Young-ho, who is in charge of operations at South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The incident dealt a blow to South Korean President Moon Jae-in's efforts to improve relations with the North.

In a speech to the United Nations on Tuesday, Moon called for a formal end to the Korean War, arguing that would pave the way to denuclearization and a permanent peace on the peninsula. The 1950-53 conflict ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty.

South Korea said it sent a message to the North on Wednesday about the defecting official's fate but had not received a response. There was no immediate comment on the incident in North Korea's state media.

Suh Choo-suk, first deputy chief of South Korea's National Security Council, called on North Korea to “take full responsibility and clarify the truth.”

Colleagues found only the man's shoes on the vessel and reported his disappearance to the Coast Guard, prompting a search operation, the Yonhap news agency reported.

Gen. Robert Abrams, the commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said earlier this month that North Korean troops manning the border with China had been given “shoot-to-kill orders” to prevent anyone from bringing the coronavirus into the country.

More than 33,000 North Koreans have fled to the South since the early 1990s to escape poverty and political oppression. But it is extremely rare for South Korean nationals to attempt to defect to the North.

A North Korean defector who settled in the South was arrested by the South Korean police last week for breaking into a military training site near the border.