Prosecutors Summon Coast Guard Police Commissioner for Investigation of 'West Sea Shooting Incident'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution investigating the 'West Sea Shooting Civil Servant Incident' is summoning a senior official of the Korea Coast Guard who led the investigation at the time for questioning.

According to the legal community on the 26th, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) summoned Kang Seong-gi, a Korea Coast Guard Inspector General, as a witness on the same day.

Inspector General Kang was involved in the investigation as the head of the information department at the Korea Coast Guard headquarters when Lee Dae-jun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries civil servant, was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers in the West Sea in September 2020. The Coast Guard leadership announced an interim investigation result one week after the incident, estimating that Lee had voluntarily defected to North Korea. However, the Coast Guard reversed the investigation results in a press briefing held last June, 1 year and 9 months after the incident, stating that they could not find any intention of defection by Lee.

Following criticism of the past Coast Guard investigation, nine Coast Guard officials including Inspector General Kang submitted collective resignations along with a public apology. Subsequently, the Board of Audit and Inspection launched an audit of the investigation leaders at the time, resulting in the rejection of the resignations, and Inspector General Kang was placed on standby.

The prosecution plans to confirm with Inspector General Kang the specific circumstances under which the Coast Guard made the 'defection assumption' judgment and whether there were any directives from higher authorities, including the Blue House, during the investigation process.

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