Thousands of North Korean defectors have made their way to the South, but it rarely goes in the opposite direction. So, news that South Korean troops at the border shot and killed a man trying to swim north across the Imjin River is unusual.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency reports that the unidentified man "tried to cross the Imjin River near the western border in Paju, north of Seoul, at around 2:23 p.m. Soldiers fired off warning shots and told him to return to the South. When he disobeyed the order and jumped into the river, an Army corporal shot him dead, military officials said."
The New York Times, quoting an unnamed official at the Defense Ministry in Seoul, said the man was wearing civilian clothes.
"We had to shoot to stop him," the official told the Times on condition of anonymity. "We retrieved his body, and we are trying to find out who he is and what was his motive."
" 'He jumped into the river and was holding onto the buoy at the time of shooting,' " a senior official of the Joint Chiefs was quoted by Yonhap as saying. 'A special team was formed to investigate the incident.' "