'West Sea Shooting' Seo Hoon's Warrant Hearing Ends After Over 10 Hours... Longest Record Ever

Former National Security Office Director Suh Hoon, who was the top official in the Moon Jae-in administration's North Korea security line during the "West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident," is attending the warrant hearing on the 2nd at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The warrant hearing for Seo Hoon, former director of the National Security Office and the top official in the Moon Jae-in administration's North Korea security line, ended after about 10 hours.

Judge Kim Jung-min, in charge of warrants at the Seoul Central District Court, conducted Seo's interrogation from 10 a.m. to 8:06 p.m. on the 2nd.

The prosecution and Seo's defense clashed for 10 hours and 6 minutes, marking the longest record since the warrant hearing system was introduced in 1997.

On the 29th of last month, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) requested Seo's arrest warrant from the court. Seo was the highest-ranking official in the Blue House's diplomatic and security line in September 2020, when Lee Dae-jun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official, was killed by North Korean soldiers. He is accused of abuse of authority, obstruction of exercise of rights, and falsification and use of false official documents for hastily concluding Lee's death as a ‘voluntary defection to the North’ during a ministerial meeting held around 1 a.m. on September 23, 2020, the day after Lee's death, and ordering related ministries to delete confidential intelligence that contradicted this.

The prosecution presented a PowerPoint presentation spanning hundreds of pages, pointing out that Seo led the crime as the ‘control tower’ for covering up the incident and fabricating the defection.

Seo's defense also argued, based on their prepared PowerPoint and written opinions, that the response at the time was a ‘policy decision’ made after comprehensively reviewing various intelligence reports and is not subject to judicial judgment.

After the hearing, Seo said, "I sincerely participated in the hearing," and then headed to the Seoul Detention Center, where he was waiting.

The decision on Seo's detention is expected late at night or in the early hours of the 3rd.

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