Moon administration officials tried to cover up killing of South Korean by North: State audit board

North Korea

Published: 07 Dec. 2023, 17:48 Updated: 07 Dec. 2023, 22:35

Moon administration officials tried to cover up killing of South Korean by North: State audit board

Relative of the South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korean military in 2020 sheds tears as she attends a press conference about the incident in Seoul on June 17, 2022. [NEWS1]

The Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) confirmed Thursday that defense officials of the Moon Jae-in administration tried to cover up evidence about the South Korean official killed by the North Korean military in 2020 near the western sea border and drive the narrative that he was killed while trying to defect to the North.

According to the BAI’s findings, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) knew the South Korean fisheries official — a 47-year-old surnamed Lee — was floating near the western sea border by around 4:43 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2020.

It reported the incident to the military and the Defense Ministry, which reported the case to the National Security Office. However, neither the office nor the ministry met to discuss the situation, nor did they issue a statement to the North.

The Korea Coast Guard, also informed about Lee’s whereabouts, took no measures to gather further information, according to the BAI.

Hence, the national police, which had been looking for Lee since he was reported missing by his family the previous day while on duty near Yeonpyeong Island in waters south of the Northern Limit Line (NLL), continued searching for Lee up and down the coastlines without updated information.

Around 6 p.m. that day, the Unification Ministry was informed of the incident, but the official in charge did not report it to the minister or vice minister.

By 7:30 p.m. that day, the director of the National Security Office had called it a day and gone home.

Lee was by then believed to have been drifting at sea for around 40 hours.

Senior officials from the Incheon Coast Guard and South Korean Defense Ministry apologized for assuming that a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea's military in the Yellow Sea had been trying to defect to the North in 2020 in a press conference in Incheon on June 16. [YONHAP]

The North Korean military shot Lee and burned his body sometime between 9:40 p.m. and 10:50 p.m. that night.

The National Security Office, learning what happened around 1 a.m. the following day, ordered all officials to keep what happened secret.

At 2:30 a.m., the Defense Ministry asked the JCS to delete certain records about the incident, and by around 3:30 a.m., the JCS called in its military information system manager to delete some 60 documents about the incident collected thus far, said the BAI.

Later that afternoon, the Defense Ministry issued a press statement to reporters accredited at the ministry, wording it as if the fisheries official was still alive. The first media reports on the official's disappearance were made by that evening.

By 4:53 p.m. on Sept. 23, 2020, the Defense Ministry issued a statement about the incident to the North.

According to the BAI, the National Security Office quietly ordered its officials to tell the media that Lee might have been trying to defect to the North.

The Coast Guard told reporters the next day that it “could not out the possibility that Lee tried to defect out of his own volition.”

The National Intelligence Service on Sept. 27 knew this claim was insufficiently substantiated but still stood by as the National Security Office continued to push the narrative, said the BAI.

The Coast Guard “confirmed” in a press briefing on Sept. 29 that Lee had tried to defect out of his volition.

In a closed-door meeting with the press soon afterward, a Coast Guard official even shared information about Lee’s gambling habits and debts.

By Oct. 22, the Coast Guard said that Lee appeared to have tried to “defect to the North to try to escape his reality” of gambling debts and psychological stress.

Lee’s family members refused to believe this narrative and continued to press the Moon government to disclose confidential information on his death. The UN special rapporteur on North Korea's human rights situation also supported the relatives’ right to know.

The Defense Ministry and the Coast Guard apologized in June last year as the Yoon Suk Yeol government disclosed information about the case contradicting their claims about Lee’s alleged intentions to defect.

The BAI said it began investigating the case after the apology to determine what happened.

The institute ordered the Defense Ministry and two other related agencies to take disciplinary actions against 13 officials. It also issued warnings to the National Security Office and five other organizations.

Of the 13 officials, many are currently under investigation or on trial, including Suh Hoon, former director of the National Security Office, Park Jie-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, Suh Wook, former defense minister, and Kim Hong-hee, former Coast Guard commissioner general.

BY ESTHER CHUNG [chung.juhee@joongang.co.kr]