North Korean leader Kim Jong-un apologized Friday (Sept. 25) for the shooting of a South Korean citizen in North Korean waters.
South Korea’s National Security Chief Seo Kaoru gave an update on the development at a press conference that day. He said Kim Jong-un expressed his apology in a letter sent to the South Korean side by the North’s Unification Front Ministry. In the letter, Kim Jong-un said he felt guilty that the accident in North Korean waters had deeply disappointed President Moon Jae-in and his compatriots at a time when the South Korean people are being threatened by the neocon virus, South Korean media Yonhap reported.
A day earlier (Sept. 24), the South Korean military announced the disappearance of a South Korean civil servant near the disputed western maritime border between the two Koreas. The South Korean Defense Ministry said that the man was interrogated in North Korean waters before being shot and burned. The South Korean military believes that the way the South Korean man was treated was apparently ordered from a superior.
This is considered extremely rare for North Korea, and no North Korean leader has ever apologized to South Korea for any issue before. Some analysts have suggested that Kim Jong-un’s apology the day after South Korea announced that the North had shot a South Korean citizen may have been a swift response to an incident that could have affected future bilateral relations between the two Koreas. The 47-year-old civil servant, who worked for South Korea’s Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, disappeared on Monday while on duty on a patrol boat near the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong. He was reported missing about 10 kilometers south of the de facto North Korean maritime boundary line.
The exact reason for the South Korean man’s disappearance is unclear, but South Korean military officials believe he may have tried to flee to North Korea. The Yonhap News Agency reports that the man was recently divorced and had been in debt.
In the letter, the Korean Unification Front Ministry admitted that North Korean soldiers fired more than 10 rounds at the illegal border crossers at a distance of 40-50 meters. After the shooting, the border-crossers did not move, so the army confirmed the situation more than 10 meters away and found that the unidentified intruder was no longer on the floating object and only a large amount of blood was visible. The letter said that the army judged that the border-crossing person was dead and doused the floating device with gasoline and burned it on the spot according to the national emergency epidemic prevention regulations. The DPRK has denied the idea of burning the body.
The shooting shocked many South Koreans and sparked strong criticism from opposition lawmakers. South Korean President Moon Jae-in called the incident “shocking and inexcusable” at a press conference Friday.
The shooting of a South Korean citizen by North Korean soldiers is the first in more than a decade, after North Korean troops shot and killed a South Korean tourist who had entered a restricted area while walking in a North Korean resort in 2008, an incident that led to the suspension of tourism projects between the two Koreas. However, South Korean President Moon Jae-in earlier this year called for economic exchanges with North Korea, including allowing South Korean tourists to visit the country, to help defuse the situation. North Korea has reportedly previously welcomed South Korean tourists.
Moon has been looking to improve relations with Pyongyang before he leaves office in 2022 in an attempt to convince the North to return to the dialogue and cooperation that characterized the beginning of his five-year term.
President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently exchanged letters expressing concern over the Saigon epidemic, South Korea’s national security chief Seo Hoon said Friday. Observers note that this is the first time the inter-Korean leaders have exchanged letters after more than six months, with the last correspondence occurring in early March.
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