Seoul: South Korea on Thu. charged North Korea of firing in a South Korean govt officer & burning his own body & pushed the North to punish those accountable.
The person has been a govt officer who disappeared Mon. from a South Korean ship that has been verifying on potential unauthorized fishing nearby inter-Korean sea boundary where multiple inter-Korean naval skirmishes & deadly targets blamed on North Korea have took place.
The South Korean Defence Ministry stated the missing officer has been on North Korean shores on Tue. noon. However it’s still unclear just how he stopped up within the North, & the updated info the ministry declared Thu. didn’t say just how he passed away.
The person’s disappearance & demise, although, are awaited to deepen already-strained ties between the rivals.
The Defence Ministry stated within the announcement that it concluded the North dedicated this atrocious act on the basis of an analysis of different intelligence & that South Korea firmly condemned the North’s acts.
North Korea didn’t immediately respond to the South Korean announcement.
Ties between the 2 Koreas remain frosty amidst a deadlock in nuclear talks between North Korea & the United States. In Jun, North Korea exploded an inter-Korean liaison workplace on its territory to dissent the South Korean civilian leafleting campaign over the North.
In the height of their own Cold War rivalry, North Korea frequently forcibly towed South Korean fishing boats functioning nearby sea boundary into its waters, holding some of the of those on board & repatriating remaining. No such incidents were recorded in previous times.
Defections of South Koreans to North Korea are greatly uncommon. Over 30,000 North Koreans have fled to South Korea in the last 20 yrs. for political & economic reasons.