Board of Audit and Inspection Requests Investigation into 'West Sea Shooting'... Neglect of Duty and Abuse of Authority (Update)

20 Officials from 5 Agencies Including Anbosil, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Unification, National Intelligence Service, and Coast Guard... Concealment of Facts and Report Deletion

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Board of Audit and Inspection has requested the prosecution to investigate 20 individuals from five agencies, including the National Security Office and the Ministry of National Defense, in connection with the 'West Sea Civilian Shooting Incident.' It judged that the Moon Jae-in administration baselessly concluded that civilian Mr. Lee voluntarily defected to the North.

On the 13th, the Board of Audit and Inspection announced that it requested an investigation by the prosecution against 20 people from five agencies during the Moon administration: the National Security Office, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Unification, National Intelligence Service, and the Korea Coast Guard, on charges including dereliction of duty, abuse of authority, and falsification of official documents.

The Board of Audit and Inspection found that the agencies did not properly implement measures according to the crisis response manual. The National Security Office concealed facts by excluding Mr. Lee’s killing and incineration from the 'Daily National Security Situation Report' submitted to the president, the Coast Guard maintained search and rescue operations despite receiving information about the killing, and the Ministry of National Defense and others deleted military intelligence-related reports uploaded to MIMS (Military Information Management System) under the minister’s orders.

The investigation request targets include 3 from the National Security Office, 7 from the Ministry of National Defense, 3 from the Ministry of Unification, 1 from the National Intelligence Service, and 6 from the Coast Guard. Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection initiated an audit in July to uncover the objective and substantive truth of the incident after the investigative authorities reversed their 2020 investigation announcement and stated that no evidence was found to acknowledge defection to the North.

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