The UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights has pointed out that North Korea's fatal shooting of a South Korean official cannot be justified by COVID-19 quarantine measures.

Tomás Ojea Quintana told Radio Free Asia on Friday that the "shoot on sight" policy cannot be justified even in a state of emergency coming from a pandemic and urged the North Korean government to end that policy, reiterating that it violates the international human rights law.

He added that the human rights law requires all governments to take adequate measures in emergency situations.

The UN official said segregating the South Korean official would have been the appropriate response from the North Korean military under the armistice agreement.

Pyongyang is known to have ordered troops to shoot any person or wildlife approaching a one to two kilometer buffer zone created at the border since August due to coronavirus fears.

The South Korean fisheries official was shot to dead by the North in the West Sea last month.