Suspected 'Seohae Attack' Seo Wook Appears for Detention Hearing, Responds to Reporters' Questions with "..."

Seo Wook, former Minister of National Defense, who is suspected of concealing the shooting of a public official in the West Sea, is attending the warrant hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul on the 21st. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Seo Wook, former Minister of National Defense (59), involved in the 'West Sea Public Official Shooting' incident, stood before the detention hearing on the 21st.

Seoul Central District Court Chief Judge Kim Sangwoo, in charge of warrants, began Seo's pre-arrest suspect interrogation (warrant substantive examination) at 10 a.m. that day.

Arriving at the court at 9:40 a.m. wearing a navy suit and a sky-blue shirt, he entered the courtroom without responding to reporters' questions such as "Do you admit the charges?" and "How will you explain yourself?"

Earlier, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Heedong), which is investigating this case, requested an arrest warrant for former Minister Seo on the 18th. This was the first strong measure taken to secure the custody of a key suspect since the investigation began following a complaint from the bereaved family in June.

Former Minister Seo is accused of ordering the deletion of military secrets from the Military Integrated Information Processing System (MIMS) that contradicted the government's judgment that the late Lee Daejun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official, voluntarily defected to North Korea in September 2020.

According to the audit results announced by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 13th, after a meeting of related ministers held on the morning of September 23, 2020, 60 military intelligence-related reports uploaded to MIMS were deleted under Seo's orders. The Board of Audit and Inspection judged that the Moon Jae-in administration baselessly concluded Lee's voluntary defection, citing charges of dereliction of duty, abuse of authority, and falsification of official documents.

The hearing for Kim Honghee, former Commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard and the person responsible for investigating the Lee case, will also be held at 2 p.m. that day under Judge Kim's supervision.

Former Commissioner Kim is accused of announcing investigation results that concluded voluntary defection by using unverified evidence in line with the Blue House National Security Office's policy.

The decision on the detention of former Minister Seo and former Commissioner Kim is expected to be made in the afternoon or early morning of the 22nd.

The 'West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident' refers to the case where Lee was killed by North Korean soldiers in the West Sea in 2020. At that time, the Moon Jae-in administration concluded that Lee voluntarily defected to North Korea, but under the current administration, the possibility that Lee did not defect has been raised. Accordingly, the Board of Audit and Inspection launched an audit in June.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.