South Korea cannot be seriously considering the killing of a South Korean tourist was accidental?:
South Korea said Friday it cannot determine whether the shooting death of a South Korean tourist at a resort in North Korea was accidental.
The South’s fact-finding commission chief Hwang Boo-gi said his team cannot resolve numerous questions about the July 11 shooting because the North refuses to allow investigators into the Diamond Mountain resort.
To find out whether the shooting was accidental, Hwang told reporters, his team needs to know from what location the North Korean soldier fired shots at the 53-year-old housewife and other details. [CBS News]
It is pretty clear when you shoot an old woman in the back on a beach it is more then likely a cold blooded killing which is nothing new in North Korea.
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8:53 pm on August 1st, 2008 1
An unarmed S. Korean woman was shot in the back twice and the authorities in S.K. make no formal protest. Pathetic.
10:59 pm on August 1st, 2008 2
Yes, but not surprising in the least!
11:24 pm on August 1st, 2008 3
What irritates me is that they won’t come to some sort of speculative conclusion. Because the DPRK will not cooperate they cannot be 100 percent sure. Therefore, they must make a best guess call.
They know the distance from the fence (200m) and the direction the woman was facing with two wounds in the back (one in chest and one in hip). They know that it was not a close shot because of no powder residue. From the photo, I’m guessing that the shooter was on the beach near the sea firing towards the fence. From the Hyundai Asan debriefs — who saw the body — make a call. From the direction of the woman’s body, I would guess that she was fleeing when she was shot. It is possible that a verbal warning was given.
They have two choices to make. It is either accidental or intentional. Make the call and then see where the chips fall.
11:43 pm on August 1st, 2008 4
What is also disturbing is that others had wandered past that humble fence previously, yet no attempt was made to fortify the barrier.
4:07 am on August 2nd, 2008 5
This is such a load of garbage. Where are the candlelit vigils for this victim???? Where is the moral outrage??? Is there no sense of justice in South Korea?
5:48 am on August 3rd, 2008 6
South Korea to World: “We do not want to upset the general of the north.”
12:12 pm on August 3rd, 2008 7
You know what really makes me angry about this? If this woman had been shot by a US soldier, Koreans would be rallying for the soldier’s death. Even if the woman had broken into a US military base and was attacking soldiers and was shot, they would be screaming for blood.
South Korea continues to send loads of money to North Korea and continues to thwart USFK efforts to improve the alliance and improve life for soldiers here.
It is clear where their loyalty lies. THIS is an incident that really deserves media attention and candlelight vigils.
9:31 pm on August 3rd, 2008 8
North Korea’s official media said earlier in the day that Pyongyang will expel all “unnecessary” South Korean personnel from the Mount Geumgang resort, where a South Korean tourist was shot dead by a North Korean soldier last month.
“We will expel all the persons of the south side staying in the Mt. Kumgang tourist area we deem unnecessary,” an unnamed North Korean spokesman said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency earlier Sunday.
Yonhap News 8/3/2008
Amazing. I don’t think there is anything the North could do that would surprise me. The inference I make from all of this is that North Korea has little or no respect for the ROK.
11:36 pm on August 5th, 2008 9
This just in: An exhaustive inquiry by DPRK authorities have found the tourist’s injuries were self-inflicted.