Poison Found in Body Recovered From Boat Sunk by S. Korea

Military investigators found traces of poison in a body recovered from a suspected North Korean spy boat sunk by South Korea’s navy, officials here said Saturday.

The finding indicated that some of the crew members may have killed themselves before their vessel was sunk Friday, Defense Ministry officials said.

The low-slung speedboat, carrying an estimated four people, was spotted as it approached Yosu, a small port on the southern tip of the Korean peninsula. It was pursued until it was hemmed in and sunk in a gun battle.

The body of a crewman armed with a hand grenade and knife was found shortly after the vessel sank.

“We found evidence that the man bit an ampul of poison. We also found injuries from gun shrapnel,” said Lt. Col. Lee Woon Se, a ministry spokesman. Lee added that North Korean agents were trained to commit suicide rather than be caught by South Korean troops.

Navy ships and planes continued a sea and air search for more bodies and wreckage of the boat, which went down in waters 110 yards deep.

In a separate operation, Japan’s Self-Defense Forces assisted South Korean warships and planes searching international waters for a larger ship believed to have launched the speedboat, Lee said. He refused to give further details.

South Korean officials believe that the boat was on a mission to land or pick up North Korean spies in the South.

“We are shocked and enraged by the North’s continued provocative infiltrations,” Seoul’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. “We demand the North offer a responsible and convincing explanation.”

The Koreas were divided into the Communist North and the pro-Western South in 1945. They are still technically fighting because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The U.N. Command, which oversees the armistice, will demand a meeting with North Korean officials at the truce village of Panmunjom to protest the incident, the Defense Ministry said.

North Korea’s government accused Seoul of fabricating the incident to raise tensions and carry out a U.S. plan to trigger a second war on the divided Korean peninsula.