Former defense minister, ex-Coast Guard chief arrested

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Former defense minister, ex-Coast Guard chief arrested

Published: 23 Oct. 2022, 15:26

Former Defense Minister Suh Wook, left, and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee are questioned at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, southern Seoul, Friday over their alleged mishandling of the death of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korean soldiers in September 2020. The court issued arrest warrants for them early Saturday. [NEWS1]

Former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee were arrested by prosecutors Saturday over their alleged mishandling of the death of a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korean soldiers in September 2020.

The Seoul Central District Court issued the arrest warrants for Suh and Kim earlier Saturday, citing the risk of them fleeing or destroying evidence.

This marks the first arrest under the Yoon Suk-yeol government of a minister-level official from the preceding Moon Jae-in administration.

Lee Dae-jun, an official from the South's Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, disappeared while on duty just south of Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), which serves as the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary in the Yellow Sea on Sept. 22, 2020. The next day, North Korean soldiers found Lee, fatally shot him and burned his body over fear of Covid-19, according to South Korean military officials.

The Korea Coast Guard initially concluded that Lee was killed in the process of defecting to the North to escape a gambling debt.

However, the Defense Ministry and Coast Guard admitted in a press conference in June that there was actually no evidence to support Lee had been trying to defect.

Later that month, Lee's relatives filed criminal complaints against former security officials they deemed responsible for framing Lee's death as a botched defection to avoid causing any trouble with Pyongyang.

Suh faces charges of abuse of power and is accused of ordering the deletion of information obtained through the military's surveillance stations near the NLL, thus violating the Military Secret Protection Act.

Kim was arrested on charges of abuse of power and is accused of falsifying documents and manipulating evidence to support the claim that Lee had attempted to defect to the North. He is also accused of defaming Lee by citing his gambling debts as the reason for his alleged defection.

Earlier this month, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) requested the prosecution investigate 20 people involved in the case, including top security officials of the previous Moon Jae-in administration, on charges including dereliction of duty, abuse of power and falsifying documents.

The BAI report found that some 60 military intelligence reports were deleted on ex-Defense Minister Suh's orders after Lee's death.

Prosecutors requested arrest warrants for them last Tuesday. The court summoned Suh and Kim Friday for questioning ahead of their arrests.

Suh and Kim have denied the allegations against them.

Suh and Kim's arrests are expected to speed along the investigation into whether top security officials from the Moon government mishandled the fisheries official case.

This could include expanding the investigation into former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Park Jie-won and former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon.

Regarding the arrests, Park wrote in a Facebook post Saturday, "While I respect the court's decision, I don't understand that the reason for the arrests warrants being for a fear of flight or destruction of evidence."

He said the two had "fixed addresses and they cooperated faithfully in the investigation." Park added that he has not yet been contacted by prosecution but if he is, he plans to fully participate in prosecutors' investigation "without hiding anything."

"It is a time for everyone who tried to make this a defection case, including former President Moon Jae-in, to answer," said PPP floor spokesman Jang Dong-hyeok in a statement Saturday in response to the arrests.

The liberal Democratic Party's spokesperson Kim Eui-kyeom said Saturday that "the final truth will be revealed through the court process," underscoring that the prosecution's ultimate target was former President Moon.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]