Seoul: South Korea's former defence minister and coast guard chief were arrested on Saturday over their alleged involvement in covering up facts and distorting the circumstances surrounding North Korea's killing of a South Korean fisheries official in 2020 near the rivals' tense sea border. The arrests came as the government of conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol expands investigations into the 2020 killing and another border incident the year before that prompted criticism that Seoul's previous liberal administration improperly appeased the North to improve ties.
The Seoul Central District Court said it granted prosecutors' requests for arrest warrants on former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee because it saw them as threats to destroy evidence or flee. The opposition liberal Democratic Party, which claims the investigations are being driven by Yoon's political vendetta against his predecessor Moon Jae-in, had no immediate comment on the arrests. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office had been investigating Suh and Kim for suspected abuse of power and falsifying documents related to the 2020 case.
It said Suh faces an additional allegation of destroying records. Last week, South Korea's Board of Audit and Inspection demanded that prosecutors investigate 20 people, including Suh and Kim, for allegedly covering up critical facts related to the 2020 case. The agency said its investigation into the Moon government's handling of the killing revealed that officials made no meaningful attempt to rescue the 47-year-old fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, after learning that he was drifting in waters near the Koreas' disputed western sea boundary.
After confirming that North Korean troops had fatally shot Lee, officials publicly played up the possibility that he had tried to defect to North Korea, citing his gambling debts and family issues, while withholding evidence suggesting he had no such intention, the agency said. According to the agency's report, Suh, under the direction of Moon's national security office, instructed an official to delete about 60 military intelligence reports related to the incident as the government delayed a public announcement of Lee's death while debating how to explain it to the public.