MOSCOW, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – South Korean troops shot dead a man trying to swim across a river to North Korea, officials said Monday.
The unidentified man was attempting to cross the Imjin River, which forms a section of the border between North and South Korea near Seoul.
After the man jumped into the river at around 2:23 p.m. local time on Monday, soldiers fired warning shots and repeatedly warned him to return to the south, the Yonhap news agency cited a South Korean official as saying.
The man ignored the warnings and was holding onto a buoy when the soldiers shot and killed him, Yonhap reported the official as saying.
It also reported that an investigation is underway to identify the man and determine his motives for fleeing.
The incident came shortly after the reopening of the Kaesong industrial park – an enterprise jointly run by North and South Korea – which was shut down for five months amid high political tensions.
Pressure between the neighboring countries increased after North Korea performed its third nuclear test in February and threatened to launch nuclear attacks on South Korea and Washington.
There are thousands of North Korean defectors currently living in South Korea, but few attempt to escape in the opposite direction.
