An official who disappeared from a boat was shot “dead in the water” and his body burned in the first killing of its kind in a decade, South Korea said.
It is the first killing of a Southern citizen by North Korean forces for a decade, and comes with Pyongyang at high alert over the pandemic and inter-Korean relations at a standstill.
Pyongyang has closed its borders and declared an emergency to try to protect itself against the virus which first emerged in neighbouring China. He declined to go into detail about the source of the information. But the South Korean military is known to intercept radio communications by the North’s forces.
South Korean media reports said the man was in his forties with two children, but had recently divorced and had financial problems.Kim Jong-un in September inspecting a field where flood recovery efforts are underway. Picture: KCNAThe isolated North — whose crumbling health system would struggle to cope with a major virus outbreak — has not confirmed a single case of the disease that has swept the world.
US Forces Korea commander Robert Abrams said earlier this month that North Korean authorities had issued shoot-to-kill orders to prevent the coronavirus entering the country from China, creating a “buffer zone” at the border.
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