Former NSO chief granted bail in 2020 murder at sea case

Suh Hoon, former director of the Blue House National Security Office (NSO), is surrounded by reporters at the Seoul Central District Court in central Seoul on Dec. 2. [NEWS1]

Suh Hoon, the former chief of the Blue House National Security Office (NSO) arrested for allegedly covering up irregularities surrounding a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea soldiers in 2020, was granted bail by a Seoul court Monday.

The Seoul Central District Court approved Suh's application for bail and ordered him to pay 150 million won ($114,000).

Suh will now undergo trial without detention as long as he stays at his registered residence.

He will have to obtain the court's permission before changing his residence or going on an overseas trip and must attend hearings.

He is also prohibited from meeting other individuals related to the trial or persuading witnesses to change their statements.

Any violations could result in the revocation of bail.

On Dec. 3, Suh was arrested on suspicion of destroying evidence and engaging in a cover-up in the case of Lee Dae-jun, a fisheries official who was shot to death and his body burned by North Korean soldiers on Sept. 22, 2020.

Suh was indicted later in the month on charges of abuse of authority and obstructing the exercise of rights.

At the time, South Korean military officials claimed that Lee, who disappeared on Dec. 2 while on duty in the Yellow Sea south of Yeonpyeong Island near the Northern Limit Line (NLL), the de facto inter-Korean maritime border, had been trying to defect to North Korea to escape gambling debts.

But in June last year, after the Yoon Suk Yeol administration took office, the Ministry of National Defense and Coast Guard admitted there was no evidence to support the idea that Lee had been trying to defect.

In January, Suh's legal representatives applied for bail, arguing that the defendant suffers from cardiovascular disease and is a 70-year-old senior.

Suh, who was director of the NSO from 2020 to 2022 during the Moon Jae-in administration, is accused of ordering the suppression of information on Lee's murder — specifically South Korean military intelligence reports gathered through surveillance of North Korean communications — and falsifying documents by directing the Defense Ministry, National Intelligence Service and the Korea Coast Guard to report that Lee was killed in the process of voluntarily defecting to North Korea.

Suh has denied the allegations against him.

On March 24, Suh, along with other key Moon administration officials — namely former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief Park Jie-won and former Defense Minister Suh Wook — stood for their first trial over their alleged roles on the irregularities surrounding the fisheries official's death.

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