Ahn Young-ho, the head of operations at South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, holds a briefing on September 24, 2020.
The defense ministry says North Korea shot a missing South Korean fisheries ministry official to death and burned his body earlier this week.
Announcing an analysis of its investigation into the missing official Thursday, the ministry condemned the North's "brutality" and called for an explanation as well as due punishment for those responsible.
The 47-year-old official disappeared early Monday while on duty aboard a 500-ton vessel that was patrolling waters off the western border island of Yeonpyeong, near the inter-Korean maritime border.
This is the first time since July 2008 that a South Korean civilian has been shot dead in North Korea.
At that time, a tourist was fatally shot by a North Korean soldier at the North's Mount Kumgang resort while wandering into a restricted zone.
<Photo: Yonhap News>
