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‘We didn’t know that the area was off limits to civilians. We didn’t know there was a North Korean military guard post.’
July 14, 2008
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“The North Korean military shot and killed an unarmed female tourist who undeniably had no intention to resist,” South Korea’s Ministry of Unification said in a statement. “This is indisputably wrong. It can not and should not happen.” Park Wang-ja, 53, was killed Friday morning on a beach near the Mount Kumgang resort on the North’s east coast. The North claimed that the victim “intruded deep into the North’s restricted military area, alone at dawn.” The North refused calls for a joint investigation. Lee In-bok, a 23-year-old history student at Kyungpook National University, gave a different account of what happened at the Mount Kumgang resort.
Lee told the JoongAng Ilbo that he was sitting on the beach to watch the sunrise at the time of the incident. “I saw a woman passing in front of me, about 30 meters away, slowly, as if she was strolling,” Lee said. After a while, he said he heard a single gunshot and a scream. Another gunshot was heard about 10 seconds later with another scream, Lee said. Lee said he became curious and climbed to the top of a sand dune near the fence, and saw three soldiers in uniform about 300 meters away gathered around a fallen person. While the North claimed that it fired warning blanks, Lee said he only heard two gunshots, which were consistent with the wounds on her body. “I may not be accurate because I was not paying particular attention at the time, and there were sounds of the waves, but I just don’t recall any other shots fired,” Lee said. Lee also said it was difficult to tell that the fence was separating the tourist beach from the military installation. “It looked very easy to cross the fence for someone who did not know the regulations,” Lee said. “I was never told not to go outside the fence, nor were there any warning signs. I wanted to move closer to see what had happened, but I couldn’t because there were North Korean soldiers. So I stayed on top of the dune and observed the situation from there.” Facing North Korea’s defiance, Seoul made it clear yesterday that the killing was unjustifiable and Pyongyang’s attitude is unacceptable. Citing an inter-Korean agreement governing visitors at the resort, Seoul’s Unification Ministry said a South Korean tourist’s personal safety should have been guaranteed. “If there were any problem, the person should have been stopped and investigated, but shooting the person to death can never be justified for any reason,” the ministry said. “This is a serious issue related to the life and safety of an innocent civilian, and it is the South Korean people and government’s position that the truth must be laid bare,” the Unification Ministry said. “The North must accept South Korean investigators and discuss a measure to prevent recurrence of a similar incident.” “If a thorough investigation does not take place, it will throw cold water on everyone’s expectations for development of inter-Korean relations through dialogue,” the ministry said. Seoul also officially refuted Pyongyang’s account of the incident. “The North has said the victim traveled 3.3 kilometers (2 miles) in 20 minutes from the time she left the hotel and until her death,” Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyoun said yesterday in a press briefing. “The victim was a woman in her 50s and she was moving on a sandy beach, so there is a logical contradiction in the North’s argument.” The ministry compared Pyongyang’s account to surveillance video camera footage and another eye-witness’ account. The North said Saturday that it had to open fire on Park because she continued to run away after the warning to stop. The North claimed soldiers fired blanks to warn her, but she failed to heed them. According to Hyundai Asan, the operator of the tour program, a two-meter-high fence separates the beach area and the restricted military zone. There was no sign warning tourists not to cross the fence, it said. The body of the victim was moved to Asan Medical Center in southern Seoul early Saturday morning, and top government and Hyundai officials visited to offer condolences. Park’s relatives demanded yesterday to know the truth. “I have no idea how they managed the tourists,” said Bang Jae-jeong, her 23-year-old son. “I cannot believe she intruded in the restricted area so easily. I was told that a North Korean soldier chased her for about 1 kilometer, but that just doesn’t make sense. The North made a unilateral announcement, so there is nothing we can do, but I cannot accept any part of the explanation.” Park’s 53-year-old husband, Bang Yeong-min, said the government and Hyundai Asan should have paid more attention to the tourists in the North. “I want all suspicions to be answered. I want the truth so that my wife can rest in peace.” “It just doesn’t make sense that she crossed the steel fence wearing a skirt,” he said. “She was not the kind of person who would do so.” A series of urgent meetings to discuss Seoul’s next course of action took place over the weekend. President Lee Myung-bak scolded ministers in a Saturday meeting for a “serious problem” with crisis management, saying it took more than two hours for him to receive a report about the case. The North blames the South for the incident, even demanding an apology for failing to control its tourists and halting tours to Mount Kumgang. In a statement released Saturday, the North called the woman’s death regrettable. Pyongyang has so far refused to accept calls from the South for a joint investigation into the incident. More signs of trouble were seen yesterday for the Lee Myung-bak administration’ efforts to thaw frozen inter-Korean relations as Pyongyang used insulting language to turn down the South Korean president’s offer to engage in dialogue. “Although the renegade talked about resumption of dialogue this time, the words are empty,” said yesterday’s Rodong Shinmun, the official newspaper of the North’s governing Workers’ Party. “The speech once again revealed the anti-unification position and confrontational character of Lee Myung-bak, the traitor.” Lee addressed the National Assembly on Friday on a wide range of important national issues, including an offer to the North to resume inter-Korean dialogue. According to South Korean officials, Lee was briefed about the incident shortly before he delivered the speech but he delivered the offer anyway. Twelve officials of Hyundai Asan contacted North Korea’s tourism venue development bureau officials at Mount Kumgang on Saturday, the Unification Ministry said yesterday. Since the tour program began in 1998, more than a million South Koreans have visited the mountain resort through Hyundai Asan’s programs. The government said it is listening to testimonies of other South Korean tourists who were at the resort at the time of the incident. Park’s autopsy result will be available today or tomorrow, allowing Seoul to determine how far Park was from the shooter. By Ser Myo-ja Staff Reporter [myoja@joongang.co.kr] |
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