South Korea’s unification ministry said Friday it plans to send back the body of a presumed North Korean man found near a western island in May.

The body was discovered in waters off Ganghwa Island in the Yellow Sea on May 19 and the man, believed to be in his 20s or 30s, seems to be a North Korean, given his belongings, according to the ministry.

“The government plans to send the body and his belongings at 3 p.m. on June 16 via the border village of Panmunjom on humanitarian grounds,” Lee Hyo-jung, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson, said at a regular press briefing.

She called on the North to swiftly clarify whether it will accept the body through the now-suspended inter-Korean liaison communication channel.

The ministry was not able to send a related notice to the North as the secretive regime has remained unresponsive to daily routine calls with South Korea through the liaison communication channel since April.

His belongings discovered by South Korean military officials included a North Korean train ticket. Items suspected to be drugs were also founded, but a forensic probe showed drug-related substances were not detected.

In November last year, the government proposed to return the body of a presumed North Korean woman found near the inter-Korean border in July. But the South cremated the body as the North did not respond to the South’s offer.

Since 2010, the ministry has sent back a total of 23 bodies of North Koreans who were found in the South, most recently in November 2019.

https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20230609004151325

Category: Korea