Seoul: Missing South Korean official may be in North Korea

 A South Korean official who disappeared off a government ship near disputed sea boundary with rth Korea this week may be in rth Korea, South Korea's Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

ministry said 47-year-old official was aboard a government vessel that was checking on potential illegal fishing near a South Korean border island. Colleagues ticed man was missing at lunch time and found only his shoes still on vessel, prompting a so-far fruitless search involving aircraft and ships.

In its statement, Defense Ministry said it h information that missing official was on rth Korean shores on Tuesday afteron. ministry did t elaborate on how it obtained that information.

ministry said officials will contact rth Korea to ask about missing official and take or steps to find more details.

Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, which was operating vessel man was on Monday, said 18 people were on board when man went missing. It didn’t provide information about missing official.

More than 30,000 rth Koreans have fled to South Korea in past 20 years for political and ecomic reasons, but it’s highly unusual for a South Korean national to defect to rth Korea.

At height of Cold War rivalry, rth Korea often forcibly towed South Korean fishing boats operating near sea boundary into its waters, holding some of those on board and returning ors. such incidents have been reported in recent times.

poorly marked sea boundary is where several inter-Korean naval skirmishes and dely attacks blamed on rth Korea have occurred in recent years.

Ties between two Koreas remain strained amid a delock in nuclear talks between rth Korea and United States.