S. Korea offers to return remains of presumed N. Korean man

South Korea’s unification ministry said Thursday it has discovered the body of a presumed North Korean man found dead on the country’s western island earlier this month and wishes to return it to the North.

The remains of the unidentified person were discovered at a beach of Seongmo Island in the West Sea on Sept. 10, according to the ministry in charge of inter-Korean affairs. Authorities determined the man was a North Korean after examining his belongings.

“We offer to return the body and his belongings at 3 p.m. on Sept. 26 via the border village of Panmunjeom on humanitarian and compatriotic fraternity grounds,” Koo Byoung-sam, spokesperson at the ministry, said.

Koo called on North Korea to respond swiftly on whether it will accept the body through the now-suspended inter-Korean liaison communication channel.

The ministry was not able to contact Pyongyang, as the secretive regime has remained unresponsive to daily routine calls with South Korea through the liaison communication channel since early April.

The belongings include a badge showing portraits of North Korea’s founder Kim Il-sung and former leader Kim Jong-il, and an unspecified memo, the ministry added.

In November last year and in June, the ministry proposed to return the bodies of two presumed North Koreans separately found in the South. But the bodies were cremated as the North did not respond to the South’s offer.