SEOUL– South Korea said Friday it will wait for a week to see whether North Korea responds to its offer to return the body of a presumed North Korean woman found near a border river in July.
“The Ministry of Unification plans to wait for North Korea’s response for around a week but if it does not express its intent by Nov. 24, we plan to regard the case as an unclaimed death in consultations with the local government,” Lee Hyo-jung, the ministry’s deputy spokesperson, said at a regular press briefing.
The ministry handling inter-Korean affairs said last week it has sought to notify the North of its plan to return the body but it has remained unresponsive as of Friday morning, she added.
The body was discovered around the Imjin River on July 23. Related investigations showed that she is believed to be a North Korean as she was wearing a badge with the portraits of Pyongyang’s late founder Kim Il-sung and former leader Kim Jong-il, according to the ministry.
Source: Yonhap News Agency