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Kim Jong-un apologizes to South Korea president after Seoul official was shot and burned: 'Disgraceful affair'

According to Seoul, the 47-year-old man was found floating in North Korean waters by troops, who shot him dead and set his body alight
PUBLISHED SEP 25, 2020
Kim Jong-un, Moon Jae-in (Getty Images)
Kim Jong-un, Moon Jae-in (Getty Images)

Seoul has received a rare personal apology from North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un after the killing of a South Korean official. Addressing his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in, Kim said that the "disgraceful affair" should have never happened, the BBC reported. According to Seoul, the 47-year-old man was found floating in North Korean waters by troops, who shot him dead and set his body alight. This is the first killing of a South Korean citizen by North Korean forces in a decade, and the incident has caused considerable outrage in the South.

It's no secret that the border between the two Koreas is heavily guarded. According to the BBC, the North is thought to have enforced a 'shoot to kill' protocol to prevent the novel coronavirus from entering the country. According to South Korea's presidential office, also known as the Blue House, Kim's apology came in the form of a letter addressed to President Moon acknowledging that the incident shouldn't have happened. Kim said he felt "very sorry" for "disappointing" Moon and the South Korean people, per the Blue House. The letter is essentially North Korea's first official comment on the incident.

In an act of goodwill, the North also gave the South findings of an investigation into the tragedy. According to South Korea's director of national security Suh Hoon, the probe concluded that more than 10 shots were fired at the man, who had entered the North's waters, failed to reveal his identity, and attempted to flee. Nonetheless, the North insisted that it did not set the man's body alight and only burned the "floating material" that was carrying him. "The troops could not locate the unidentified trespasser during a search after firing the shots, and burned the device under national emergency disease prevention measures," Hoon told a briefing, citing the North Korean account.

Seoul's presidential office reportedly decided to release recent letters between Moon and Kim. The North Korean supremo said he understood "more than anyone the kind of pressure and hardship" to fight the Covis-19 pandemic as well as damage sustained from recent typhoons. He declared it was the "heartfelt truth" that he shared the "pain and suffering of the Southern people."

That said, the victim was reportedly a father-of-two who worked for the fisheries department. According to the South Korean defense ministry, the man was on his patrol boat about 6 miles from the border, near the island of Yeonpyeong, when he disappeared on Monday, September 21. South Korean media said the victim was recently divorced and plagued with financial problems.

The man was found by a North Korean patrol boat floating at sea at around 3.30 pm local time on Tuesday, September 22. He was reportedly wearing a life jacket. North Korean troops put on gas masks and interrogated him from a distance. Shortly after, the man was shot dead in the water as "orders from [a] superior authority" came in that he be killed. North Korean troops subsequently burned the corpse at sea, according to South Korea.

President Moon Jae-in said the "shocking" incident could not be tolerated and urged the North to take "responsible" measures over the killing. Meanwhile, South Korea's National Security Council said the North could "not justify shooting and burning the corpse of our unarmed citizen who showed no sign of resistance".

However, Kim Jong-un's apology may go a long way in easing ongoing tensions in the Korean peninsula.

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