Search on for slain Korean
SEOUL: North Korea said yesterday it is searching for the body a South Korean official killed by its troops, but warned that South Korean naval operations in the area threatened to raise tensions by intruding across a disputed sea border.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology on Friday for the fatal shooting of the South Korean fisheries official in North Korean waters, according to Seoul.
The South’s military has accused the North’s soldiers of killing the man, dousing his body in fuel and setting it on fire near the sea border.
After South Korean President Moon Jae-in convened a ministers’ meeting to discuss the North yesterday, the presidential Blue House reiterated calls for Pyongyang to allow a joint investigation into the killing. It urged the restoration of military communication hotlines the North severed earlier this year as relations soured.
North Korea’s KCNA called the killing an “awful case which should not have happened” but accused South Korean naval operations near in the area of crossing into North Korean waters.
“We urge the south side to immediately halt the intrusion across the military demarcation line in the west sea that may lead to escalation of tensions,” it said.
A spokesman for the South’s defence ministry had no immediate comment.
The North was beginning its search and recovery operation, KCNA said.