North Korean troops shot dead a South Korean official, doused his body in oil, then set fire to it in what appears to be an incredibly brutal attempt to prevent a COVID-19 outbreak, South Korea has claimed. According to Reuters, South Korea’s military said the unidentified fisheries official may have been attempting to defect to the North when he was reported missing from a boat on Monday. Citing intelligence sources, the military said the man seems to have been questioned at sea, shot dead on an “order from a superior authority,” then his oil-smothered body was incinerated. The North Korean troops appear to have been acting under anti-coronavirus orders, according to the South Korean military. South Korea’s national security office described the killing as a “crime against humanity.”
