China yesterday said it lodged a protest with Pyongyang after media reports said a North Korean army deserter killed four Chinese nationals during a robbery in the Chinese border city of Helong late last month.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Hua Chunying (華春瑩) told a regular news conference in Beijing that China “would handle the matter in accordance with the law.”
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported that the alleged deserter was detained by Chinese authorities just north of the Tumen River that divides China and North Korea. The 521km-long river in the far north is a popular breakout route used by fleeing defectors.
Photo: AFP PHOTO, KCNA via KNS
The incident involving the reportedly armed North Korean occurred on Dec. 28, the report quoted unidentified sources as saying.
Dong-A Ilbo, a South Korean newspaper, said that North Korea had realigned its border troops after the incident.
The South Korean Ministry of Unification said it could not confirm yesterday’s reports, which said the incident occurred after the suspect crossed the border in search of food.
They cited sources in the border areas, who said victims were either shot dead or beaten to death. The newspaper added that the North Korean was later shot and captured by Chinese authorities.
“Killing several Chinese nationals... is a major crime, so there are good possibilities that China, unlike other runaway North Korean soldiers captured before, will not hand him over to the North,” Yonhap quoted an unnamed Seoul official as saying.
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