Missing → 30 hours to kill... It wasn't captured by military surveillance.

The military and intelligence officials concluded that a public official who was missing from a fishing guidance ship near Soyeonpyeong Island, the northernmost part of the west sea, drifted off the North Sea while attempting to defect to North Korea, and was subsequently shot and killed by the North.

A (47), a fishery guidance officer from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, disappeared on the 21st, leaving behind only his shoes on a ship on the 2km south of Soyeonpyeong Island.

Fellow sailors found only A's shoes on the ship at 11:30 am on the same day, and reported them to the Marine Police at 12:51 pm.

Subsequently, from 1:50 pm, rescue forces such as naval ships, sea police, and aircraft were put in to conduct search activities.

Spot

According to the explanation of the military authorities, Mr. A was first found on a North Korean ship after jumping into the sea from a fishing guidance ship, and then killed by the North Korean military for about 30 hours. Not captured by surveillance equipment.

20 minutes after Mr. A was killed, the military recognized the situation that the body was burned only after a flame was observed in the northern sea by the Yeonpyeong unit's surveillance equipment.

The sea on the north side where the body was burned was off the coast of Sansangot, 38km northwest of Soyeonpyeongdo Island, and 3-4km north of the West Sea Northern Limit Line (NLL).

On the 22nd, the day after the disappearance, the military checked the video recorded on the surveillance equipment of Yeonpyeong Unit at 10 pm, but could not find any singularity that could be presumed to be Mr. A.

The'blind spot' was exposed to the operation of surveillance equipment on Yeonpyeong Island, the northernmost part of the NLL in the West Sea.

On the afternoon of the day of the disappearance, 20 ships and two aircraft, including the maritime police, naval ships, and ships from the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, were put into search, but it was also a waste.

In particular, it is known that it is not military surveillance equipment but SIGINT intelligence that captured the situation when a North Korean fisheries business site ship first discovered a missing person off the coast of Mt.

Since'information' obtained through Sigin is likely to be counterinformed, it is less reliable than'information' for surveillance, which is confirmed by video or photos.

As a result, all that was captured by military surveillance equipment was the'flame' that occurred when the body was burned.

Mr. A seems to have been pushed up to the sea off the mountain cape while drifting for about 30 hours while on a float in the sea where the water temperature fell in late summer.

During this process, Mr. A may have developed hypothermia and severe dehydration.

A military official said, "The missing person is wearing a life vest and is exhausted by getting on a float that can carry about one person."

It is also reported that this was not captured by surveillance equipment, but through intelligence means.

Military and intelligence officials still do not know where on the sea the North Korean ship first contacted the missing person.

place where Mr. A was shot and killed due to the

to military agreement is a sea buffer zone under the 9·19 Inter-Korean Military Agreement.

The military agreement prevented hostilities by establishing buffer zones on the ground, at sea, and in the air respectively.

It is not far from the area where North Korea violated the agreement by conducting coastal artillery shooting training in November last year.

Military officials responded that even if there was an intention to block infectious diseases, the North's shooting against unarmed civilians was clearly'corresponding to hostilities'.

In response, a government official said, "The site will enter the buffer zone at sea," and "we have not yet decided whether this incident violated the military agreement. It seems that we have to make a comprehensive judgment."

It is the second time since the case of Prince Park, who went on a tour of Mt. Kumgang in July 2008, a South Korean civilian was shot and killed in North Korea.

In addition, according to the military agreement, UAVs cannot be launched in the western region 10 km from the Military Demarcation Line (MDL).

The same is true for resolutions near the West Sea NLL.

For this reason, some point out that after the military agreement, the limit of military surveillance capability was confirmed this time.

Based on this situation, there are also views expressing doubts whether the intelligence power toward North Korea has been properly operated in the process of dealing with this incident.

A source in the military said, "After Mr. A's disappearance, we know that the information was collected in pieces by means of Sigint's intelligence, and it was assembled like a mosaic."

Government officials said, "We can't reveal the source, but we know that we've been working on a number of measures to figure out the situation."