News / Koreas

South Korean official found dead in China

Sunday, 05 July 2015 5:28 AM [ Last Update: Sunday, 05 July 2015 5:29 AM ]

Choi Doo-yeong, a South Korean official, was found dead outside a four-story hotel in the Chinese city of Jian, July 5, 2015.

A South Korean official has been found dead in northeastern China, where he had been dispatched to deal with the aftermath of a bus crash that killed 10 South Korean government employees.

Choi Doo-yeong, the president of the state-run Local Government Officials’ Development Institute, was found on the ground outside a four-story hotel in the Chinese city of Jian early on Sunday, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs.

An investigation is underway to identify the cause of Chio’s death.

“It has not been confirmed whether Choi jumped from the hotel to his death or lost his footing and fell,” South Korea’s Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed official at the ministry as saying.

On Wednesday, a bus carrying 26 South Korean civil servants plunged off a bridge into a river in the city of Ji’an in Jilin Province, killing 11 people, including the Chinese driver.

The victims were part of a 140-person delegation of mainly government employees who were on a training trip organized by the Local Government Officials’ Development Institute.

The bus was on its way to Dandong, a city that borders North Korea.

Choi had traveled to China on Thursday, along with Chung Chae-Gun, a South Korea deputy minister of government administration and home affairs.

Fatal road accidents are not uncommon in China.

Last July, at least 38 people were killed and five others were injured when a van carrying inflammable liquid hit a bus on a highway in central China.

YH/KA/HJL

Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk