North Korea shoots, burns body of border-crossing South Korean suspected of defecting

North Korea has shot and burned the body a South Korean official who crossed the hermit kingdom’s maritime border.

The 47-year-old official went missing from a patrol boat on September 21 about 10 kilometres south of the Northern Limit Line.

General Ahn Young-ho, who is in charge of operations at the Joint Chiefs of Staff, condemned the “atrocity” at a media briefing.

"Our military strongly condemns such an atrocity, and strongly demands North Korea provide explanations and punish those who are responsible," he said.

"After detailed analysis on various intelligence, our military confirmed that North Korea had committed the atrocity of shooting our citizen who was found in the northern waters and cremating his body."

The exact reason the official travelled across the maritime border is unclear, but the South Korean state-run Yonhap News Agency cited unnamed officials who suspected he attempted to defect.