The government has requested North Korea to state its position on Seoul’s plan to hand over the body of a presumed North Korean man that was found near Incheon’s Ganghwa Island last month.

The unification ministry’s deputy spokesperson, Lee Hyo-jung, told reporters on Friday that the government discovered the body in waters off the island on May 19 and transferred it to a nearby hospital.

Lee said that Seoul wants to hand over the body and the accompanying belongings at the truce village of Panmunjeom at 3 p.m. next Friday and asked Pyongyang to relay its stance via the inter-Korean communication line.

The deputy spokesperson said that the deceased male in his 20s or 30s appears to be North Korean based on the belongings found.

Lee said the government decided to relay its intentions to the North through the media given the difficulty of sending messages due to the severed communication lines between the two Koreas.