Former spy chief sticks to his story about murder at sea

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Former spy chief sticks to his story about murder at sea

Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), speaks to reporters at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul Wednesday. [KIM KYUNG-ROK]

Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), speaks to reporters at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho District, southern Seoul Wednesday. [KIM KYUNG-ROK]

 
Former spy chief Park Jie-won said Wednesday he did not receive instructions to delete documents related to the 2020 murder at sea of a South Korean fisheries official from former President Moon Jae-in or his top security adviser Suh Hoon.  
 
Park made the remarks to reporters ahead of being summoned Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to be questioned in an investigation into how the Moon government came to the conclusion that the 47-year-old official, Lee Dae-jun, was trying to defect to North Korea and whether it tried to cover up evidence.  
 
Park served as chief of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) from July 2020 to last May and has been accused of deleting intelligence reports related to Lee's death.
 
"I did not receive any orders to delete [documents] from former President Moon Jae-in, nor former National Security Office (NSO) Director Suh Hoon," said Park in front of the prosecutors' office in Seocho District, southern Seoul. "As NIS director, I never instructed my staffers to delete anything."
 
Based on testimonies from former and current NIS employees, prosecutors suspect that Park ordered the unauthorized deletion of intelligence data under the instruction of Suh. Suh was arrested and indicted earlier this month on suspicions of destroying evidence and engaging in a cover-up.  
 
"It is the mission of the NIS to collect and analyze intelligence and information, report this to the president, and support the NSO, the Ministry of Unification and Ministry of National Defense," Park said, stressing that the NIS is "not a policy-making agency."
 
When asked by reporters if the government drew too hasty a conclusion that Lee had been trying to "voluntarily" defect to the North, Park replied, "I respect and trust the NIS staffers who work with patriotism and dedication."  
 
He said he trusted the initial analysis, saying he believes that NIS employees "did their job properly."
 
Prosecutors summoned Park to question him on whether there were orders from the Blue House to conceal the truth regarding the fisheries official's murder, namely at a ministers' meeting presided over by Suh at 1 a.m. on Sept. 23, 2020, a day after Lee's death. They suspect that intelligence reports and documents were deleted in the Defense Ministry and NIS after this meeting.  
 
Prosecutors have not found any links to President Moon in their investigation thus far.  
 
On Sept. 22, 2020, North Korean soldiers fatally shot Lee and burned his corpse. The previous day, he disappeared while on duty south of Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border, in the Yellow Sea. At the time, South Korean military officials claimed that Lee was trying to escape gambling debts by defecting to North Korea.
 
The Yoon Suk-yeol administration reopened the case after it came into office in May and the Ministry of National Defense and the Coast Guard admitted in June there was no evidence to support the idea that Lee was trying to defect and apologized for the previous conclusions.  
 
In July, the NIS filed a complaint with the prosecution against Park on allegations of destroying intelligence documents, which was followed by a raid on the intelligence agency later that month to seize documents and other evidence.  
 

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