South Korea's military found a dead body presumed to be that of a North Korean citizen in waters near the western front-line island earlier this month, Seoul's unification ministry said Wednesday.
The body of a woman believed to be in her 40s was retrieved on Aug. 11 in waters off Yeonpyeong Island, according to the Ministry of Unification.
Baik Tae-hyun (Yonhap)
"The government decided to repatriate the body to North Korea as a probe showed that she is presumed to be a North Korean citizen," Baik Tae-hyun, ministry spokesman, said at a press briefing.
He said that Seoul sought to notify North Korea's Red Cross of its plan to hand over the body on Friday at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the Demilitarized Zone which bisects the two Koreas. But the North has not shown any response.
The ministry said that it will once again notify the North of its plan later in the day, with the help from the United Nations commission in charge of supervising the inter-Korean armistice. (Yonhap)
