Weeks after the commander of U.S. Forces Korea said North Korea imposed “shoot-to-kill orders” on its border, South Korean media reported that an ROK official may have been shot dead after attempting to swim towards the North.

A 47-year-old Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official disappeared Monday from a patrol boat some 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) south of the disputed Northern Limit Line (NLL), a ministry spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

But despite an intense search to find the man, North Korean soldiers were said to have shot the official who was “trying to defect to the North,” Yonhap News