PANMUNJOM, Korea (AP) — A soldier from secretive North Korea at the heavily armed border says he is aware of his country’s deadly attack on a front-line South Korean island and says he hopes for peace.
The soldier interviewed Wednesday in the Panmunjom border village inside the Demilitarized Zone told the television news agency APTN that he hopes tensions between the two sides will be eased “as soon as possible, in a peaceful way.”
Lt. Choe Song Il told the APTN crew from Pyongyang he knows there were casualties on the South Korean side from last week’s incident and that he hopes such military conflict between the sides never happens again.
The comments were unusually candid given the tensions since the attack on Yeonpyeong Island on Nov. 23. The attack killed four South Koreans.
