Seoul's Central District Court acquitted former top security officials from Moon Jae-in's administration on Friday over allegations they covered up North Korea's 2020 killing of a South Korean fisheries official. The incident involved the official, who went missing from a fishery inspection ship and was fatally shot by North Korean soldiers the next day near the maritime border in the Yellow Sea, with his body burned. Prosecutors claimed a cover-up to avoid straining inter-Korean ties, but the court cited lack of evidence.
On September 22, 2020, South Korean fisheries official Lee Dae-jun went missing from a fishery inspection ship and was fatally shot by North Korean soldiers the next day near the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea. His body was burned by the North. The Moon Jae-in administration at the time announced that Lee had attempted to defect to the North, but prosecutors argued this was a cover-up driven by fears of worsening inter-Korean relations.
The Seoul Central District Court acquitted former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon, former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won, former Defense Minister Suh-wook, former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee, and former NIS chief secretary Noh Eun-chae on Friday, December 26, citing a lack of evidence. The court found the defendants lacked sufficient motive for a cover-up, noting former President Moon's orders to disclose confirmed facts publicly. "By the prosecution's arguments it would mean they disobeyed the president's orders, which is difficult to accept," the bench stated.
It also deemed it hard to prove they pushed a defection narrative, respecting the initial judgment made with limited information. Suh Hoon and Park Jie-won expressed relief, with the latter vowing reforms to prevent politicization of the prosecution and intelligence service. Lee's brother, attending the hearing, called the ruling "nonsensical" and plans to challenge it.
The case gained renewed attention after Yoon Suk Yeol's administration took office in 2022, prompted by a state audit agency's request for investigation. Prosecutors had indicted Suh for instructing confidentiality, Kim for distributing false defection documents, and others for ordering deletions, seeking four years for Suh, two for Park, and three for Suh-wook.
