Prosecutors Say "Extreme Caution" on Possibility of Investigating Moon in 'West Sea Shooting' Case

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The prosecution is exercising caution over whether to investigate former President Moon Jae-in in connection with the 'West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident.'

On the afternoon of the 15th, when reporters asked a member of the investigation team whether it was necessary to verify the facts with former President Moon, they said, "I understand that the Prosecutor General said, 'We must be extremely cautious,'" adding, "The Prosecutor General also mentioned that 'the investigation team is exercising sufficient restraint,' and I understand this to mean that we should do our best to handle the case based on evidence and legal principles without prejudice."

The prosecution completed questioning all key figures in the previous administration's North Korea security line, with former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Park Ji-won being the last. During his appearance before the prosecution, former Director Park claimed, "I did not receive any deletion orders from former President Moon or former Director Seo Hoon, nor did I instruct subordinates to delete anything." He stated that he only urged the maintenance of security, which is the primary duty of intelligence agencies, and never ordered the deletion of intelligence reports.

The prosecution suspects that after attending a meeting of related ministers, former Director Park received instructions from former National Security Office Director Seo Hoon to "maintain security" and subsequently ordered the deletion of NIS documents. They are currently considering filing an arrest warrant for former Director Park soon.

The 'West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident' refers to the killing of the late Lee Dae-jun by North Korean soldiers in the West Sea in 2020. At that time, the Moon Jae-in administration concluded that Lee had voluntarily defected to North Korea, but under the current administration, the possibility that he did not defect has been raised. Subsequently, the Board of Audit and Inspection judged that the Moon administration had baselessly concluded that Lee had voluntarily defected.

On the 1st, former President Moon criticized the prosecution's investigation into former National Security Office Director Seo Hoon, stating, "The West Sea incident involved the then-president directly receiving reports from the Ministry of National Defense, the Coast Guard, and the National Intelligence Service, and giving final approval to those reports."

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