DPRK has ignored multiple offers to repatriate remains of suspected citizens, including children, since last year
The body of a man in his 20s who drowned in a possible attempt to escape North Korea will be cremated, Seoul announced Friday, after the DPRK ignored entreaties to accept the remains.
ROK authorities recovered the body last month in waters off the coast of Ganghwa Island, west of Seoul. He was identified as North Korean from a train ticket and other belongings, including what intelligence officials initially thought was an illicit drug but turned out to be a white powder used to treat skin disease.
“South Korea will treat the man as an unclaimed body,” unification ministry deputy spokesperson Lee Hyo-jung said Friday. Domestic law calls for any deceased not claimed by relatives to be cremated.
Local media has reported that the man was likely a defector and had styrofoam attached to his body to help him stay afloat.
However, it is not uncommon for bodies of North Korean adults and children to be discovered near waterways along the inter-Korean border, especially after inclement weather.
Following monsoon rains last year, the bodies of a male infant and two children under 10 years old were recovered in rivers and tidal flats northwest of Seoul, along with the corpse of a woman wearing a Kim leader badge. The DPRK did not respond to requests from the South to accept these bodies.
At the same time, Seoul predicts more defections by sea in the near future due to severe food shortages.
An entire family escaped from North Korea in waters close to where the man’s body was found the same month, telling authorities that conditions were so poor in the country that they became disillusioned with the regime.
North Korea has ignored all known outreach attempts since early April, when it stopped answering twice-daily calls through hotlines managed by the unification ministry and ROK military.