A prolonged maritime search by the military and police to find the body of an official of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries who was attacked and killed in North Korea.
According to the Maritime Police Agency, the Navy and the Coast Guard are searching the waters near Yeonpyeong-do and Socheong-do, Ongjin-gun, Incheon-si to find the body and belongings of A (47), a fishery instructor of the West Sea Fishery Guidance and Management Group, who disappeared last month.
However, the search for the 16th day from the 21st of last month to today (6th), the day of the disappearance, has not been achieved.
The Navy and the Coast Guard are searching for a total of six zones, 96 km wide and 59 km long, from the west of Yeonpyeong Island to the south of Socheong Island.
The Navy took over 3 seas close to the West Sea Northern Limit Line (NLL), and the Coast Guard took over the remaining 3 areas below it.
In the search, 25 maritime and naval ships, 8 government ships, and 6 aircraft were put into force.
As a result of checking the drift prediction system by the Coast Guard, it was found that there is a high possibility that Mr. A's body will drift off the coast of zones 1-2 on the Socheong Island side.
A maritime administration official said, "When Mr. A drifted on the sea after being attacked on the North Korean mountain trail on the 22nd of last month, it was predicted that it would be between the 1st and 2nd zones of Socheongdo Island today." "We are searching more and more."
However, it is impossible to predict when the search by the Navy and the Coast Guard will end.
Nor is the atmosphere in which the coast guard can decide on its own to end the search.
This is because even after the military authorities and the sea police announced that Mr. A was judged to have fled North Korea, his bereaved family still protested that he was not defecting to North Korea. In a situation where controversy continues, the political authorities are also demanding the military authorities and the sea police to recover the body as much as possible.
In addition, the Democratic Party's'Special Commission on Joint Investigation and Recurrence Prevention of the Massacre of Public Officials in the West Sea' visited the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday and asked them to endeavor to recover the body.
A maritime affairs official said, "Even the government is asking for the search until the end," and said, "We have to keep searching until we find the body."
The Coast Guard clarified that some reports that flares were not used at night, especially due to North Korea's backlash during the search for the body, are not true.
A maritime official said, "We are searching at night using a searchlight installed on the ship." "It is not that flares are used to search for all missing persons, and it is irrelevant to the North's announcement that'Do not invade the territorial waters' "I said.
(Photo = Courtesy of the Maritime Police Agency, Yonhap News)