Last Friday, Park Wang-ja, a South Korean tourist, was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers during a trip to the Mount Geumgang resort Friday July 11. Park went to the resort with friends to celebrate her birthday and was shot twice around 5 a.m. by North Korean soldiers. She was shot in the back and buttocks. The North claimed she was in a restricted military zone. The North is demanding an apology from South Korea and says it will ban further trips to the resort. The killing has been denouced by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
The North’s stance is that Park had entered deep into a highly restricted military zone by herself. Soldiers then spotted her and shouted at her to stop and fired warning shots. She was then shot and killed.
There are different things being circled around the inter web about this. The North places Park’s time of death at 4:50 a.m. Friday morning. Security cameras at the resort show her leaving at 4:30, meaning everything that happened took place within a twenty minute time frame. The soldiers apparently spotted her after she had walked 2.3 kilometers, fled another kilometer, then was shot 200 meters later by soldiers. I don’t know many fifty something women who can walk over three kilometers in twenty minutes.
Also, the fence that the North was using to blockade off the restricted area was hardly effective. The fence suddenly ends and there is a pile of sand. There appear to be no warning signs or anything of the sort (though in North Korea you should have common sense in where you’ll walk). She may have assumed it was alright to walk there because it was not blockaded. Either way a woman is dead.
South Korea has offered to sent an investigation team to figure out what happened but that has been refused by North Korea. Park’s body has been returned to South Korea where an autopsy will be conducted.
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