South Korea Says Victim Attempted to Defect Before He Died

South Korea says a civilian government official who was shot dead by North Korea at the maritime border between the two countries last week was trying to defect to North Korea.

Yoon Sung-hyun, director of investigation and intelligence for the South Korean Marine Police Agency, said Monday in Seoul that they based their conclusion on military intelligence and other evidence gathered from the scene.

The 47-year-old civil servant, who was employed by the South Korean Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, reportedly disappeared while on duty aboard a fishing boat north of the two countries’ western maritime border, known as the “Northern Limit Line,” according to the report.

Since the man was found by North Korean forces wearing a life jacket and hanging from a floating device, it is unlikely that he lost his footing or attempted to kill himself, Yoon Sung-hyun said. He said that based on the direction of the current on the day he disappeared, it is unlikely that he would have drifted naturally to the spot where he was actually found, unless he intentionally swam toward it.

Yun Sung-hyun said that the officer told the North Korean army that he wanted to defect. Also, the North Korean army knew the officer’s personal information, including his name, age, domicile, and height.

Yoon stated that the officer was thousands of dollars in debt, but could not tell if the debt was the reason for his attempt to defect.

The officer’s brother has said that it is more likely that he slipped and fell into the sea.

The South Korean military’s description of the incident is that the man was interrogated and shot, and that his body was then doused with oil and burned by the North Korean military.

However, according to the DPRK statement, border guards shot the man 10 times from a distance, in accordance with the neocon virus response. When the troops attempted to approach his floating device, they found only bloodstains. They then burned the floating device, the statement said.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un issued a rare apology for the incident last week, saying the man’s death was “unpleasant” and “should not have happened. Seoul has called for a joint investigation of the incident by the two countries.