SEOUL, South Korea (AP) Dec 3 – South Korea’s former national security chief was arrested on Saturday for covering up North Korea’s 2020 killing of a South Korean fishery official near rival’s maritime border. rice field.
Seo Hoon’s arrest drew criticism early Saturday as the conservative government, led by President Yoon Suk-yeol, was investigating its response to the murder of its liberal predecessor and another border incident later in the year. . Seoul desperately tried to appease North Korea to improve relations.
Former President Moon Jae-in risked his only tenure in office to reconcile inter-Korean relations before stepping down in May. issued a statement accusing it of politicizing sensitive security issues.
Judge Kim Jong-min of the Seoul Central District Court granted the prosecutors’ request to arrest Seo for fear he might try to destroy evidence, the court said in a statement. Su did not answer reporters’ questions about the allegations when he appeared in court on Friday to review the prosecutor’s arrest warrant.
The killer also served as President Moon’s chief spy before he was appointed director of the National Security Agency two months ago. He faces allegations that, as the government drafted an official statement on Lee’s death, he used a cabinet meeting to order officials to erase intelligence records related to the case.
Suh also allegedly ordered the Department of Defense, the National Intelligence Agency, and the Coast Guard to portray Lee as an attempt to desertion in their reports on his assassination.
In June, the Pentagon and Coast Guard refuted the Moon administration’s account of the incident, saying there was no evidence that Lee attempted to escape. Moon’s Democratic Party released a statement criticizing Seo’s arrest, saying that “all the materials are in the hands of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration,” so the suspicion that he could destroy evidence is unwarranted. said.
“The Department of Defense, Coast Guard, National Intelligence Service, and other security-related agencies have rendered their verdict on the West Sea incident based on information and analysis of the situation,” the party said in a statement. called the political revenge of
The Yoon administration is separately investigating the deportation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019 despite wanting to settle in South Korea.
In July, the National Intelligence Service indicted Seo and his successor, Park Ji-won, on charges of abuse of power, destruction of official documents, and falsification of documents related to the two cases.
The agency indicted Park, who served as director until May, for ordering the destruction of information reports on Lee’s death. It accused Suh of forcibly halting an investigation into the repatriation status of two North Korean fishermen caught in South Korean waters in 2019.
Critics say the Moon government has never given a clear explanation as to why the two fugitives were sent to the North to face possible execution. described them as criminals and questioned their sincerity in wanting to go into exile.
Dozens of international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, issued a joint statement saying that the Moon administration failed to follow due process and “has been exposed to grave risks of torture and other serious human rights violations after repatriation.” He accused him of failing to “protect a certain person.”
President Moon has shown little indication of any effort to engage with North Korea, and investigations into two incidents have further bruised his legacy.
But diplomacy has never recovered from the failure of his second Kim-Trump meeting in Vietnam in 2019. Negotiations collapsed as both sides failed to agree to exchange crippling US-led sanctions against North Korea.
