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U.N. Seoul human rights office to meet brother of S. Korean official killed near sea border

October 12, 2020

The Seoul office of the U.N. human rights body was to hold a meeting Monday with a brother of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea after he called for a U.N. probe into the killing.

“I received an interview request and I am going to visit the human rights office in the afternoon,” Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the late official, told Yonhap News Agency. “This is the first official reaction after we called for an investigation.”

The U.N. office also confirmed that a meeting was taking place, although it made it clear that the purpose of the meeting was to gather information for an analysis, not for an investigation.

The 47-year-old official was fatally shot by the North Korean military on Sept. 22 while adrift in the North Korean waters. Pyongyang has yet to respond to Seoul’s calls for a joint probe into the incident.

Lee filed a request for a U.N. probe last week, raising strong doubts about the government’s finding that his brother attempted to defect to North Korea.

The U.N. rights office in Seoul called on the two Koreas to conduct a prompt and impartial probe into the incident in line with international human rights law.

Lee Rae-jin (C), older brother of the South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea’s military at sea near the western maritime border last month, stands with Reps. Tae Young-ho (L) and Ha Tae-keung of the main opposition People Power Party on Oct. 6, 2020, before visiting the U.N. human rights office in Seoul to call for a fair probe into the incident. (Yonhap)