Lee orders stern handling of Coast Guard officer’s death

President Lee Myung-bak has ordered a "stern" handling of the killing of a Korean Coast Guard officer in a violent clash with illegal Chinese fishermen, an official said Tuesday.

Lee issued the instruction after being briefed on the case on Monday, the official said.

The Coast Guard commando, surnamed Lee, died Monday after being stabbed by the captain of a 66-ton Chinese vessel seized for fishing illegally in South Korea's exclusive economic zone in the Yellow Sea off the west coast.

All the nine sailors on board, including the captain, were taken to Incheon for investigation.

Lee's death marks the latest in a series of killings by illegal Chinese fishermen. Another Coast Guard officer in the coastal city of Mokpo, 410 kilometers southwest of Seoul, was killed during a similar raid in September 2008.

Later Monday, Korean First Vice Foreign Minister Park Suk-hwan called in Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xinsen and filed an official protest. Park also demanded that the Chinese government strictly clamp down on illegal fishing and the illegal acts of Chinese fishermen. (Yonhap)