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Wednesday saw some corrections to the early account of the killing of a South Korean tourist at the Mt. Kumgang resort area in North Korea. The initial report by Hyundai Asan, the South Korean operator of tours to Mt. Kumgang, of the time of Park Wang-ja's departure from the hotel has been changed, and North Korea has also reportedly reversed its earlier statement of the time when a soldier spotted her in a restricted area nearby.
The details were given in a press conference at Hyundai Asan's headquarters in Gye-dong, Seoul on Wednesday by the firm¡¯s president Yoon Man-joon. Yoon said he was told by officials of the North's Guidance Bureau for Comprehensive Development of Scenic Spots, Asan's partner in North Korea, that Park was first spotted by a North Korean soldier at a point about 800m north of the fence that demarcates the off-limits area, and that the soldier fired a total of four shots, including a warning shot.
Initially, the North said she had been spotted 1,200 m north of the fence and the soldier fired two warning shots. South Korean tourists who were nearby at the time of the incident have consistently testified that the shooting took place around 5:20 a.m. last Friday and they heard only two shots. The new account is unlikely to satisfy doubters of North Korea¡¯s version.
After checking the hotel's CCTV tape, Asan staff ¡°confirmed that Park left the hotel at 4:18 a.m., not 4:31 a.m. as was previously believed,¡± Yoon said. ¡°The time difference came because the CCTV's inbuilt clock was 12 minutes and 50 seconds fast."
Yoon added Park was shot and fell to the ground 300 m from the safety fence, not 200 m as initially reported.
He also estimated that the shooting took place "between 4:55 and 5 a.m.," and not at 4:50 a.m. as initially reported, or at 5 a.m. as the North said last Saturday.
Yoon said the reason for the shooting given was that Park ¡°turned back and ran away even after she was ordered three times to halt by the North Korean soldier. I heard that the soldier, as he was running on the sandy beach, had difficulty catching up with Park, who was running on the hardened ground in the area, so he finally aimed his gun and fired three shots at her."
Some differences in the accounts, he said, were due to the original report about the distances being made based on visual measurement by North Korean officials and Hyundai Asan staffers, without taking accurate measurements.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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