South Korean Woman Shot and Killed by North Korean Soldier

This came across my attention this morning when a friend from NYC texted me about the news that a South Korean woman had been shot at around 5:00 AM Korea Time in the Keumkangsan tourist district.

For those who aren’t aware, Keumkangsan is a chain of mountains famed in Korean lore for its beauty. Unfortunately, for most South Koreans, Keumkangsan is located a little bit north of the DMZ. For the most part, South Koreans were unable to visit this site for decades. (And I assume that most North Koreans have not been able to, either!) As a piece of the rapprochement game that happened in the late 90’s, Hyundai (yes, the guys who make Sonatas) negotiated a tourism deal with the North Koreans. Basically, a subsidiary of Hyundai (named Hyundai Asan) has been licensed to run a tourist resort at Keumkangsan by the North Korean government. In return, North Korea gets $… $… $.

Although some have called this a cash cow to a repressive government that earns very little hard currency otherwise, over two million Koreans have visited Keumkangsan since it opened. The woman who was killed yesterday had come over with two of her friends to see the mountains. Another note as set up: the tourist area is cordoned off by signs that clearly tell potential trespassers that they are about to leave the tourist area and enter a restricted North Korean military zone. (Just a few miles down the road is a North Korean naval case) If that’s not enough, there is supposedly a two meter high fence that tells you that you’re not in Kansas anymore.

According to the official North Korean story (told through the mouths of Hyundai Asan), the woman was challenged by a North Korean soldier at a sentry post 1.2 km from the demarcation point. After being told to stop repeatedly (and this is where the reports start to get murky), the woman started to run. Some reports have the soldier firing warning shots, other reports do not. Two hundred meters from the fence, the woman is shot twice and is killed and this is where her body was found by Hyundai Asan representatives.

There were no witnesses to the shooting, but I found myself scratching my head. The woman was caught on closed circuit cameras leaving her hotel at 4:30 in the morning. So she crosses a beach, climbs a two-meter high fence (and I’m thinking this woman being 53 years old is not exactly Chewbacca), walks more than a kilometer into North Korean territory and then is chased another kilometer by a North Korean sentry before being shot and killed? And the North Korean sentry didn’t have enough daylight to identify that the woman was 53, a Keumkangsan tourist, and probably not an imperialist spy?

Furthermore, the incident happened at 5:00 in the AM. Hyundai Asan authorities were not notified of the shooting until 9:30 in the morning. Not to be a cynic, but this gives North Korea four and a half hours to decide what to do with the whole thing. That’s a lot of time. And although I try not to be a cynic, with Iran photoshopping its missile launches et al., one wonders whether this gave North Korea enough time to come up with a “friendly” story – after all, they don’t want to be seen shooting up wayward tourists, right? (For the record, Hyundai Asan didn’t notify the South Korean government until 11:30 AM)

The North Korean government hasn’t responded officially to the story yet. I eagerly await their reaction.