Ex-President Moon voices deep concern over probe into slain fisheries official

Former President Moon Jae-in on Thursday expressed deep concern over the prosecution’s ongoing investigation into the 2020 dying of a South Korean fisheries official by the hands of North Korea, saying {that a} “matter of nationwide safety” shouldn’t be a “topic of political strife.”

“I specific deep concern over making a matter of nationwide safety a topic of political strife and these mindless acts that incapacitate the nationwide safety system and stomp on the delight of public servants who’ve devoted themselves to defending nationwide safety for a very long time,” Moon stated in an announcement learn by Rep. Youn Kun-young of the principle opposition Democratic Get together.

Moon stated his administration reached a conclusion that the official was killed whereas trying to defect to the North, primarily based on all of the intelligence and circumstantial proof it may get on the time.

It’s the first time that Moon has publicly expressed his official stance on the probe for the reason that incumbent authorities overturned in June the previous Moon authorities’s evaluation that the official had tried to defect to the North.

High safety officers of the earlier authorities, together with former protection minister Suh Wook, have been questioned in reference to the case. On Tuesday prosecutors sought an arrest warrant for former Nationwide Safety Adviser Suh Hoon over the case.

Moon known as on the incumbent authorities to supply one other rationalization of how the official ended up in North Korean waters if it seeks to overturn the earlier conclusion.

Moon additionally famous that the intelligence and the circumstantial proof surrounding the slain official stay unchanged.

Lee Dae-jun, the 47-year-old fisheries official, was fatally shot by the North’s coast guard close to the Yellow Sea border between the 2 Koreas on Sept. 22, 2020, a day after going lacking whereas on responsibility on board a fishery inspection vessel.

In June, the Coast Guard and the army reversed the Moon administration’s conclusion, saying there was no proof to counsel the deceased official had a motive to defect.

Since then, the prosecution has been wanting into the chance that the Moon authorities manipulated the case to curry favor with Pyongyang.

Youn, who served as a key presidential aide to Moon, additionally slammed the President Yoon Suk-yeol authorities and the prosecution over the investigation, calling it “political retaliation.”