North Korean Leader Apologizes to South Over Killing
SEOUL (Dispatches) -- North Korean leader Kim Jong Un issued a rare apology Friday over what he described as the "unexpected and disgraceful” killing of a South Korean at sea, Seoul’s presidential office said.
The message comes with inter-Korean ties in deep freeze as well as a standoff in nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.
The fisheries official was shot dead on Tuesday by North Korean soldiers, and Seoul says his body was set on fire while still in the water, apparently as a precaution against coronavirus infection.
Kim was "very sorry” for the "unexpected and disgraceful event” that had "disappointed President Moon and South Koreans”, rather than helping them in the face of the "malicious coronavirus”, said Suh Hoon, the South’s National Security Adviser.
Suh was reading out a letter from the department of the North’s ruling party responsible for relations with the South.
In it, Pyongyang acknowledged firing around 10 shots at the man, who had "illegally entered our waters” and refused to properly identify himself.
Border guards fired at him in accordance with standing instructions, it said.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: "Kim Jong Un’s supposed apology reduces the risk of escalation between the two Koreas and keeps the Moon government’s hopes for engagement alive.”
It was a "diplomatic move” which "avoids a potential fight in the short-term and preserves the option of reaping longer-term benefits from Seoul”, he said.
The killing provoked fury in the South, with President Moon Jae-in -- a consistent advocate of better relations with Pyongyang -- saying it was "shocking” and could not be tolerated for any reason.
The man -- who was wearing a life jacket -- disappeared from a patrol vessel near the western border island of Yeonpyeong on Monday, and North Korean forces located him in their waters more than 24 hours later.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice but not a peace treaty.
They were on a path of rapprochement beginning in January 2018 before U.S. intransigence to relieve any of the sanctions on the North effectively killed diplomacy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has held three summits with Kim, with whom he signed an agreement in 2018 to take a step closer to peace by turning the Korean Peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats.”
The negotiations have gradually halted owing to Trump’s refusal to relieve any of the harsh U.S. sanctions on the North in exchange for goodwill measures by Pyongyang.
The message comes with inter-Korean ties in deep freeze as well as a standoff in nuclear negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington.
The fisheries official was shot dead on Tuesday by North Korean soldiers, and Seoul says his body was set on fire while still in the water, apparently as a precaution against coronavirus infection.
Kim was "very sorry” for the "unexpected and disgraceful event” that had "disappointed President Moon and South Koreans”, rather than helping them in the face of the "malicious coronavirus”, said Suh Hoon, the South’s National Security Adviser.
Suh was reading out a letter from the department of the North’s ruling party responsible for relations with the South.
In it, Pyongyang acknowledged firing around 10 shots at the man, who had "illegally entered our waters” and refused to properly identify himself.
Border guards fired at him in accordance with standing instructions, it said.
Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul, said: "Kim Jong Un’s supposed apology reduces the risk of escalation between the two Koreas and keeps the Moon government’s hopes for engagement alive.”
It was a "diplomatic move” which "avoids a potential fight in the short-term and preserves the option of reaping longer-term benefits from Seoul”, he said.
The killing provoked fury in the South, with President Moon Jae-in -- a consistent advocate of better relations with Pyongyang -- saying it was "shocking” and could not be tolerated for any reason.
The man -- who was wearing a life jacket -- disappeared from a patrol vessel near the western border island of Yeonpyeong on Monday, and North Korean forces located him in their waters more than 24 hours later.
The two Koreas are still technically at war after the 1950-53 Korean war ended in an armistice but not a peace treaty.
They were on a path of rapprochement beginning in January 2018 before U.S. intransigence to relieve any of the sanctions on the North effectively killed diplomacy.
U.S. President Donald Trump has held three summits with Kim, with whom he signed an agreement in 2018 to take a step closer to peace by turning the Korean Peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats.”
The negotiations have gradually halted owing to Trump’s refusal to relieve any of the harsh U.S. sanctions on the North in exchange for goodwill measures by Pyongyang.