North Korea Calls South Korean Ministry Staff Shooting At The Border As A Prevention Action For COVID-19

JAKARTA - North Korea stated that the decision to shoot South Koreans dead in its waters last month was an act of self-defense amid fears of the spread of COVID-19.

North Korean troops shot dead a South Korean fishing officer who went missing in late September, before dousing the officer's body with oil and setting it on fire, the South Korean military said.

Seoul has called for a joint investigation after North Korea claims it did not burn the bodies, but the buoys they used. The defense was delivered amidst public anger and heating up political relations between the two countries.

North Korean news agency KCNA has accused South Korean opposition lawmakers of sparking controversy over the issue, blaming Seoul for failing to stop the officers crossing the maritime border into North Korea.

"Our soldier cannot but take action in self-defense when he considers that the South Korean citizen who illegally infiltrated the waters ... Under our side's control will run away, not responding to the arrest," reported, Friday, October 30.

The incident was "the result of improper control of citizens by the South at a sensitive flash point at a time of tension and danger due to the virulent virus sweeping South Korea," he continued.

"Therefore, the initial mistake of the incident was on the South Korean side."

The South Korean military said the man was trying to defect to North Korea when he was reported missing from a fishing boat just south of the Northern Boundary Line (NLL), a disputed dividing line from military control that acts as the de facto maritime boundary between the two Koreas.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un apologized for the death case a few days after the incident, saying this was to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak.