Kim Jong Un apologizes over fatal shooting of South Korean official

SEOUL — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Friday issued a rare apology for the killing of a South Korean official near the two countries' disputed border, the South's presidential office said.

President Moon Jae-in’s office said it received a letter from Kim in which he expressed “immense regret” over the “unexpected and unfortunate incident.”

It is unusual for North Korea to admit wrongdoing or express remorse toward South Korea, its archrival with which it remains technically at war.

A day earlier, South Korea condemned the North for its treatment of the fisheries official, who disappeared from a patrol boat near the disputed maritime frontier earlier this week in what authorities described as an ill-fated attempt to defect. The 47-year-old was killed by North Korean troops and his body burned, the Defense Ministry said, an act that Seoul labeled an “atrocity.”

[link to www.washingtonpost.com (secure)]