Kim Jong Un has apologised after North Korean soldiers shot dead a South Korean ministerial official near the countries’ sea border, the presidential office in Seoul said on Friday.
“In the North Korean ruler’s message, he said that he regretted very much that he had disappointed South Korean President Moon Jae In,’’ South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
It noted that soldiers shot at the man on Tuesday, apparently because they assumed he was an intruder.
The South Korean Defence Ministry previously said the 47-year-old man, an employee of South Korea’s Oceans and Fisheries Ministry, disappeared from a boat while on an inspection tour about 10 kilometres south of the North-South Korean sea border.
South Korea launched a search for him using ships and planes, fearing that the current could have driven the man into North Korean waters.
On Wednesday, citing informants, Yonhap reported that North Korea had recovered the man’s body and cremated it as a measure against the potential spread of the coronavirus.
Although, theories that the man wanted to escape to North Korea have not been ruled out.
dpa/NAN
