Body of Ansan Male Repatriated via Panmunjom

The North Korean authorities have
repatriated a South Korean male found in the waters of the West Sea
last Sunday. The body and belongings of the man, a Mr. Lee, were conveyed to
the South Korean authorities via Panmunjom today.

The man disappeared last month after going
out fishing from Incheon, and was retrieved off the North Korean coast near the village of Taegi
in Ongjin County, South Hwanghae Province. The cause of death is not known, but
the death is not believed to be suspicious.

According to identification documents found
on the body, the man was a 61-year old resident of Ansan, a city
south of Seoul. 
A brief article on the repatriation was published today by Chosun Central News Agency (KCNA).

Commenting on the event, a
spokesperson for the Ministry of Unification downplayed the significance of the return of the body, saying, “This kind of incident has happened at times. The body of a South Korean citizen sometimes has drifted
toward the North and vice versa. In those cases, we have handed over the body to
each other in a humanitarian manner.”


Ongjin County in South Hwanghae Province, where the body was discovered. | Image: Google Earth capture

Christopher Green is a researcher in Korean Studies based at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Chris has published widely on North Korean political messaging strategies, contemporary South Korean broadcast media, and the socio-politics of Korean peninsula migration. He is the former Manager of International Affairs for Daily NK. His X handle is: @Dest_Pyongyang.