Published : Sept. 13, 2017 - 13:20
South Korea plans to return to North Korea next week a body presumed to be that of a North Korean man who drifted over to the South Korean side of the inter-Korean maritime border last month, the Ministry of Unification said Wednesday.
The body was found in the waters near South Korea's front-line island of Yeonpyeong in the Yellow Sea by the Coast Guard on Aug. 30, Baik Tae-hyun, ministry spokesman, said.
(Yonhap)
Upon the decision to send it home, South Korea tried to inform the North of the plan through the Red Cross communication channel earlier in the day, but has received no response, he said.
The government will try again later in the day through the United Nations Command to inform the North of its plan to repatriate the body on Sept. 18 via the inter-Korean truce village of Panmunjom, the spokesman said.
South Korea has retrieved another body of what appeared to be a North Korean woman in the southern side of the Yellow Sea last month, but couldn't send it back to North Korea due to a lack of communication on the North Korean side. (Yonhap)