North Korea ‘killed and burned South Korean official’

| September 24, 2020

According to the BBC;

A South Korean official has been shot dead and burned by North Korean troops, the South’s defence ministry said, condemning the “brutal act”.

Seoul said the man, who worked for the fisheries department, disappeared from a patrol boat near the border and was later found in the North’s waters.

North Korean soldiers shot him, then poured oil over his body and set it alight, the ministry said. It believed it was an anti-coronavirus measure.

Pyongyang has not commented.

The border between the Koreas is tightly policed, and the North is thought to have a “shoot-to-kill” policy in place to prevent Covid-19 from entering the country.

The incident would be the second time North Korean troops have shot and killed a South Korean civilian. In July 2008, a tourist was shot by a soldier at Mount Kumgang.

More at the source. If true, wars have been started for less. Here’s how the South Koreans say it went down;

The official was on his patrol boat about 10km (6 miles) from the border with the North, near the island of Yeonpyeong, when he disappeared on Monday, the South Korean defence ministry said.

The 47-year-old father of two had left his shoes behind on the boat. It is believed he had been trying to defect, a rare but not unprecedented move.

A North Korean patrol boat found the man, who was wearing a life jacket, at sea at around 15:30 local time on Tuesday, Seoul added.

They put gas masks on and questioned him from a distance before “orders from [a] superior authority” came in that the man be killed. He was shot dead in the water.

North Korean troops then burned the corpse while at sea, South Korean defence ministry officials said, adding that they believed this might have been an anti-coronavirus measure.

Category: North Korea

11 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
5th/77th FA

I can understand why the Norks would shoot some one attempting to enter their territory. I can even understand them burning the body of said interloper.

What I can’t understand is why anyone would want to go to North Korea. I saw this article on evening last and scratched my watch over it. Somebody gonna have to school me on this one.

Combat Historian

There will be no retaliation. The Norks torpedoed and sunk a ROK corvette back in 2010, killing all 65 sailors aboard, and the ROKs didn’t retaliate, so they’re not gonna retaliate now. As in 2010, the current ROK administration is liberal center-left; they favor peaceful non-violent responses when the norks launch provocations like this. The ROKs will need to be careful; peaceful non-violent responses by the ROKs to maintain the status quo may be misconstrued by the norks as weak non-response, and will probably lead to more provocations…

5JC

Compared to the hundreds of billions in damages and untold dead 10000s of civilians a brief war with the NORKs would bring on a dead tax collector isn’t going to amount to much.

ninja

We Need To Leave South Korea and Have The UN Do Their Job!

Almost 70 Years of being the Policemen over there.

Take Care Of Our Own Country!

Roh-Dog

The UN has the bestest Battle T-Rexes!
https://youtu.be/DueSvcjn810

ninja

😆😅🤣😂👏👏👏!!!

Devtun

S. Korea can’t afford to lose too many peeps. They just ain’t making babies. A stat I saw had ROK dead last among 200 nations in yearly average birthrate at just 1.0. Population replacement rate is considered 2.1.

Commissar

They have very strict measures to prevent Covid from entering or spreading in North Korea.

They also are shooting and burning the bodies people crossing Chinese-North Korean smuggling routes.

Which sounds like it is not a huge change; “weren’t they shooting smugglers before”?….

Not exactly, the black market does a great deal to increase access to food and resources and reduce the relative suffering in North Korea. Most local officials look the other way. Because without the black market many families and communities would not survive.

Besides, top officials have been running a grey market for decades. Enriching themselves and their loyal allies.

The massive disruption of the black market is having a major impact in North Korea.

Poetrooper

Congratulations, Lars, you actually made a comment without sneering, sounding condescendingly superior or calling any of us here a stupid, know-nothing dipshit.

This has to be a major milestone for you…

AFCombatCAM