CCTV May Provide Clue
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
A closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera was set up near the scene where a South Korean tourist was shot dead Friday by a North Korean soldier. With the North refusing the South's request for a joint investigation, the focus now is on whether the camera was working and whether it recorded the killing.
According to a photo of the Mount Geumgang resort released by the tour operator Hyundai Asan, a CCTV camera was set up at the restricted zone, where tourist Park Wang-ja, 53, entered. It was located behind the fence separating the tourist area and the restricted zone, facing the tourist area.
Hyundai and the authorities presume the North Korean military installed it to monitor South Korean tourists. If the camera was working, exactly when and how Park entered the zone may have been recorded.
According to the North, Park moved more than 3 kilometers from her hotel into the military area in just 20 minutes. Unification Ministry officials raised questions about the explanation, saying it was impossible for a middle-aged woman in a skirt to move such a distance so fast.
With only witness testimony available for the investigation, the North has rejected the dispatch of a South Korean fact-finding team.