The naked bodies of an adulterous couple were discovered in an apartment in the Ragwon neighborhood of Sinuiju, North Pyongan Province, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday.
Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, a source in North Pyongan Province said Thursday that autopsies by local police had determined that the lovers had died as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning.
According to the source, the case began when the man — a manager at Ragwon Machine Complex — failed to show up for work in the morning.
Machine complex officials repeatedly tried calling and texting him but to no avail. Then officials sent somebody to his home, but his wife said he had not come home since the previous day.
The machine complex’s officials waited until the afternoon, thinking he would show up by then. However, he was still a no-show when the workday ended and the post-work review hour began. Ultimately, the deputy manager conducted the review, and the manager was marked down as sick for the day.
When he also failed to show up at work the following morning, his workplace tried to call and text him again. However, they received no response and called the machine complex’s police detachment.
The machine complex’s police asked the manager’s wife whether her husband might have gone somewhere. At this point, the wife confessed that her husband was having an affair — a fact she hid for fear of hurting their children — and said her husband might have gone to his mistress’s home.
Sinuiju police went to the mistress’s home and knocked on the door. When they got no answer, they forced open the door and entered the apartment, led by the head of the local neighborhood watch unitNeighborhood watch units (inminban, people's units) are Nort... More. They discovered the naked bodies of a man and woman lying on the floor, foam in their mouths.
Sinuiju police collected the bodies, into which rigor mortis had already set, and performed autopsies. They determined that the couple died from briquette gas poisoning, which is to say, they suffocated from carbon monoxide, according to the source.
“The wife looked vacant, unsure whether she should cry over her husband’s death or feel relieved. When the manager’s affair ended in death, the workers at the complex regretted how they never gave him a word of advice, even though they all knew of the affair and just snickered about it. They also criticized party officials for failing to criticize the affair, even though the officials knew all about it.
“At the time of the incident, there were about 10 patients in the hospital who had likewise inhaled carbon monoxide and about 20 people have died in South Sinuiju from carbon monoxide poisoning since the start of the winter.”
Translated by David Black. Edited by Robert Lauler.
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