S. Korean Tourist Shot at 5:20 a.m., not 4:50

A South Korean tourist was shot at a North Korean resort at 5:20 a.m., not 4:50 a.m., as North Korea had claimed earlier, a witness said Tuesday.

"I heard the gunshots when I came out of Haegeumgang Hotel and went to the beachside for a walk," Yonhap News quoted the witness identified only as Lee as saying.

Park Wang-ja, a 53-year-old South Korean female, was shot dead early Friday by an unidentified number of North Korean soldiers during her visit to the Mt. Geumgang resort on the east coast of North Korea. She had been taking a pre-dawn stroll on a beach near the resort before she was shot.

Lee was on a separate organized tour of Mt. Geumgang with Park, as Park stayed at a different hotel, called Beach Hotel. The distance between the two hotels is a 10-minute walk, Yonhap reported quoting South Korean authorities.

North Korea claimed that the woman crossed deep into a fenced-off military area, but fled toward her hotel when the soldier ordered her to halt. The communist country said she was killed at 4:50 a.m.

"I came out of the hotel where I was staying at 5:00 a.m. and came back at 5:40. I walked the esplanade at an even speed, so I think it was around 5:20.
"The sun had already come up. When I went back to the hotel, the tour guide told me, 'It is a sunny day.'"

Another witness, Lee In-bok, said last week he heard two gunshots and a scream five to 10 minutes after seeing a middle-aged woman dressed in black strolling along the beach early Friday.

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