Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha plans to meet later this week with the elder brother of a South Korean fisheries official shot to death by North Korea at sea last month, a source said Monday.

Kang's closed-door meeting with Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the deceased official, is set for Wednesday, the source said, as he is questioning the outcome of the Seoul authorities' interim probe into the killing incident and seeking a UN probe.

During a parliamentary audit session earlier this month, Kang expressed a willingness to meet the bereaved family.

The 47-year-old official was fatally shot by the North Korean military on Sept. 22 while adrift in North Korean waters. An interim government probe concluded that the official attempted to defect to the North.

But his family, including his brother and son, has raised strong doubts over the probe outcome and appealed to the United Nations for an investigation.

Lee is expected to make that request again during his planned meeting with Kang.

The foreign ministry has appeared lukewarm about the calls, mainly from the conservative political bloc, to bring international attention to get to the bottom of the shooting incident. It has so far said the case needs a "further review and discussions within the government."

Pyongyang has apologized over the incident but has yet to accede to Seoul's calls for a joint probe.

The Seoul office of the UN human rights body interviewed Lee last week for its own analysis on the case. The office has called on Seoul and Pyongyang to conduct a prompt and impartial investigation into the incident in line with international human rights law. (Yonhap)