Seoul asks North Korea to respond to repatriation plan
South Korean authorities found a body believed to be that of a North Korean citizen on June 21 off the coast of Seongmodo Island in the Yellow Sea, the ministry spokesperson's office said in a statement sent to reporters.
The government plans to repatriate the remains next Tuesday via the truce village of Panmunjom inside the DMZ, the ministry said, urging the North to respond through an inter-Korean hotline that it has not used since April 2023.
"Given the severed inter-Korean communication lines, sending a notice to North Korea is difficult," the ministry said in a message directed to Pyongyang. "Therefore, we are informing you of the contents of this notice through the media."
The North Korean man was born in 1988 and was a farm worker in North Hwanghae Province, the ministry said, citing an identification card found on the body.
Earlier this month, the South repatriated six North Koreans across the maritime border in the East Sea, months after they drifted into southern waters and were rescued.
The North did not respond to any of Seoul's notification efforts about that repatriation plan, which were made via the U.S.-led United Nations Command. However, North Korea sent vessels to the border to retrieve the citizens.
Seoul's Unification Ministry also recently used a press briefing to request that the North give advance notice before releasing water from a dam across the border. Ministry spokeswoman Chang Yoon-jeong called the public appeal a form of "indirect communication" with Pyongyang.
South Korean President Lee Jae Myung has pledged to improve inter-Korean relations, which have deteriorated sharply in recent years after a period of diplomatic progress in 2018-19.
Shortly after taking office last month, Lee suspended propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts at the DMZ and cracked down on activists floating balloons carrying anti-Pyongyang leaflets across the border.
North Korea has rebuffed any efforts at rapprochement, however. On Monday, Kim Yo Jong, the influential sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said that Pyongyang had "no interest" in engaging with Seoul.
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