South Korean Marine found shot in head on Paengnyŏng-do Island

One can't help but wonder if this is the work of North Korean operatives, who can easily access a large island like Paengnyŏng-do (Baengnyeongdo) that is so close to the North Korean mainland.

From Bloomberg:

A South Korean marine died after being found on a front-line border island with a gunshot wound to his head, Yonhap News reported, citing unidentified military officials.

The 25 year-old staff-sergeant, whose name was withheld, died on his way to the hospital after being discovered outside a base on Baenyeong island, near the South Korea’s sea border with North Korea in the peninsula’s western waters, the report said. No suicide note was found, it said.

Sadly, suicide is always a possibility that must be considered in cases like these, but methinks that the ROK Marines wouldn't be so quick to allow this news story out if that's what they'd though had happened.

DPRK operatives are sent into the ROK with some regularity. It's perfectly plausible that one of them was spotted by the now dead Marine and this was the result. Even more ominously, it's possible that someone up in the North is deliberately trying to ratchet up tensions, perhaps ahead of the launch of the "satellite" attached to the missile.

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