'West Sea Shooting' Park Ji-won Appears Before Prosecutors: "No Deletion Orders from Moon Jae-in or Seo Hoon"

Former National Intelligence Service Director Park Ji-won is responding to reporters' questions as he appears at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 14th. / Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] Park Ji-won, former Director of the National Intelligence Service, who was accused of unauthorized deletion of intelligence reports containing the situation during the West Sea government official shooting incident, appeared at the prosecution for investigation on the 14th.

On that day, former Director Park was summoned by the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) as a suspect. Arriving at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office building in Seocho-gu, Seoul, around 9:50 a.m., he said, "I did not receive any deletion orders from former President Moon Jae-in or former National Security Office Director Suh Hoon," and added, "As the director, I never told my staff to delete anything." He further stated, "I hope that by investigating me today, the reformed National Intelligence Service will no longer be dragged into the political arena."

Former Director Park was reported to the National Intelligence Service in July on suspicion of unauthorized deletion of intelligence-related reports about the situation when the late Lee Dae-jun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official, was killed by North Korean forces in September 2020 (abuse of authority under the National Intelligence Service Act). According to the Board of Audit and Inspection's results, after a meeting of related ministers held at 1 a.m. on September 23 of that year, the day after Lee’s shooting was confirmed, the National Intelligence Service deleted 46 intelligence reports and other materials without authorization.

The prosecution suspects that after attending the meeting of related ministers, former National Security Office Director Suh Hoon instructed Park to "maintain security," and Park ordered the deletion of National Intelligence Service documents.

Former Director Park denies the allegations, stating that he never received any deletion orders and did not instruct National Intelligence Service staff regarding this matter. On the previous day, he posted on his social media (SNS) Facebook account, "I will act like the chief secretary of former President Kim Dae-jung under any circumstances," and said, "I will testify truthfully during the prosecution investigation."

Meanwhile, Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of Lee Dae-jun, plans to file a complaint with the prosecution in the afternoon, accusing former President Moon of neglect of duty for knowing that Lee was in North Korea but failing to take rescue measures, and for defamation and spreading false information by declaring Lee’s case as a voluntary defection to the North. Earlier, former President Moon stated that he had given final approval for the report related to the West Sea shooting incident at that time.

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