Moon thinks Kim doesn’t want to break inter-Korean ties

Seoul, Sep 28 (efe-epa).- Moon Jae-in believes Kim Jong-un does not want to see Korean relations “completely broken” after the northern leader gave a rare apology for the killing of a southern official.

The South Korean president said Monday: “It is unprecedented and very unusual for the supreme leader of North Korea to immediately and directly apologize.”

The North Korean leader offered his apologies over the recent shooting of a 47-year-old fisheries official at the hands of northern troops.

The regime’s response has been lukewarm and indirect after previous similar incidents, such as the fatal shooting of a southern tourist by the North Korean army on northern soil in 2008, and the leaders did not send each other direct messages.

Moon said Kim’s apology implies “that he does not want inter-Korean relations to be completely broken,” according to state-run South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Pyongyang declared in June that it was breaking communications between the two Koreas, which are technically still at war, in protest against propaganda being sent to its territory by activists from the south.

This left the cross-border relationship at its worst since 2018.

The official disappeared a week ago while working on a fisheries ministry vessel near the inter-Korean maritime border in the Yellow Sea.

Kim’s apology came a day after Seoul confirmed that northern troops shot the man dead and burned his body.

The North also condemned Seoul for not waiting for it to provide its version of events.