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(LEAD) S. Korea returns body of N. Korean boy to North
SEOUL, Sept. 8 (Yonhap) -- South Korea returned to North Korea on Tuesday the body of a North Korean boy, which had drifted downriver along with floodwater two days earlier, officials said.
The boy, aged four or five, floated south along the countries' shared Imjin River on Sunday after North Korea discharged a large quantity of water from a dam. The unannounced discharge left six South Koreans dead or missing.
The body "was handed over to North Korea's Red Cross officers" at the truce village of Panmunjom at 3 p.m., said Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo. Panmunjom has an inter-Korean hotline manned by Red Cross offices of both sides.
Lee said Seoul does not know the name of the boy or where he came from, but that his clothes were "not the kind worn in the South." The child, found by a South Korean army guard, was wearing a black shirt, but his trousers and shoes had come off.
Seoul notified Pyongyang of the discovery of the body when it sent a protest letter over the deadly flood on Monday, and North Korea said on Tuesday it would retrieve the body.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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