Mick Hartley

A mysterious business, this South Korean defector killed by the North. It seems that the man was defecting because he was recently divorced, and because of huge debts he'd run up. He jumped overboard from a maritime inspection vessel on which he served as first officer, was found floating in North Korean waters, and was promptly shot dead by North Korean officials who then doused the body in oil and burned it. The whole business is odd not only because it's difficult to understand the mentality of the would-be defector, and because of the casual brutality of the North Koreans, but also because the South Koreans were told of this some 24 hours before they decided to react, when they finally got round to issuing a statement condemning the violence and demanding an explanation and punishment of those responsible. In the meantime President Moon Jae-had decided to go ahead with a speech to a virtual UN General Assembly session urging a peace treaty with North Korea to end the Korean War. A bizarre set of priorities…

Anyway, Kim Jong-un, Supreme Leader of all he surveys, has actually issued an apology:

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un has issued a rare personal apology for the killing of a South Korean official, Seoul says.

Mr Kim reportedly told his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in that the "disgraceful affair" should not have happened.

South Korea has said the 47-year-old man was found by troops floating in the North's waters.

He was then shot dead and his body was set alight, according to Seoul.

The killing – the first of a South Korean citizen by North Korean forces for a decade – has caused outrage in the South.

The border between the Koreas is tightly policed, and the North is thought to have a "shoot-to-kill" policy in place to prevent coronavirus from entering the country.

The apology came in the form of a letter sent to President Moon which acknowledged that the incident should not have happened, according to South Korea's presidential office, also known as the Blue House.

Mr Kim called it a "disgraceful affair" and said he felt "very sorry" for "disappointing" Mr Moon and the South Korean people, the Blue House said. It is the North's first official comment on the incident.

The North also gave the South the results of its investigation – it said more than 10 shots were fired at the man, who had entered North Korean waters and then failed to reveal his identity and tried to flee, South Korea's director of national security Suh Hoon said.

However the North insisted that it had not burned the man's body but rather the "floating material" that was carrying him.

"The troops could not locate the unidentified trespasser during a search after firing the shots, and burned the device under national emergency disease prevention measures," Mr Suh told a briefing, referring to the North Korean account.

The presidential office in Seoul has also decided to release recent letters between the two leaders.

In them Kim Jong-un said he understood "more than anyone the kind of pressure and hardship" required to overcome the coronavirus pandemic and damage from recent typhoons. It was the "heartfelt truth" that he shared the "pain and suffering of the Southern people", he said.

A clear lesson here for anyone deranged enough to want to defect to the North.