The bereaved family of Lee Dae-jun, an official of the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, who was killed by North Korean forces in the West Sea in 2020, visited the leadership of the Democratic Party of Korea on the 27th and requested the release of the presidential records related to the incident.
In the process, a thorny battle of words arose between the bereaved family and Chairman Woo over whether to disclose the interview.
Lee's older brother Lee Rae-jin and lawyer Kim Ki-yun met with reporters before meeting with the Democratic Party's emergency response committee chairman Woo Sang-ho and floor leader Park Hong-geun at the National Assembly this morning, saying, "As the first task of the Democratic Party's task force (TF), the disclosure of presidential records is "If the Democratic Party does not adopt the documentary release by July 4 or the National Assembly does not pass a resolution by July 13, we plan to finalize the criminal charges against President Moon Jae-in." I did.
The information requested by the bereaved family includes the minutes of the National Security Council (NSC) meeting in the early morning of September 23, 2020, after the murder, and data that can identify the attendees at the time, and the suspicion that he was called the 'King of the Coast Guard' at the time and gave the Coast Guard guidelines for investigation into North Korea. Materials that include the name of the Blue House administrator receiving the award.
Documents related to reports and instructions exchanged between the Blue House and the Ministry of National Defense, Coast Guard, and Maritime Affairs and Fisheries on September 22, and documents reported by the Blue House from the Ministry of National Defense, Coast Guard, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries and the National Intelligence Service on the 22nd to 28th to the effect that “inter-Korean communication network is blocked”, etc. Information subject to disclosure.
Lawyer Kim said, "The bereaved family is in a position to want President Moon to be punished, and because former President Moon has designated the presidential record, we have no choice but to accept the position of the bereaved family." If you were instructed to leave it alone, it would be an abuse of power.”
As for whether or not to disclose special handling information (SI), lawyer Kim said, "The Democratic Party did not disclose SI information during the time of the ruling party. But, is the bereaved family political?” he criticized.
"The Democratic Party's West Sea TF reads the records and verdicts of the information disclosure request, and asks them not to inflict secondary or tertiary psychological and verbal abuse on the bereaved family," he said.
Mr. Lee appealed, "My nephew in the 3rd grade of elementary school saw the news about his father. He said, 'Mom, what is North Korea?' and how to respond is quite serious." .
In the interview, which lasted about an hour, there was even a war of nerves between the bereaved family and Chairman Woo.
At a briefing after the interview, Attorney Kim said, "At first, I asked for the meeting to be made public, and Chairman Woo said, 'Don't play with the media'.
However, lawyer Kim said, "Chairman Woo apologized because I immediately questioned the remarks related to media play."
In this regard, Democratic Party spokesman Cho Oh-seop said at a briefing, "Chairman Woo listened to the bereaved family as much as possible.
Spokesperson Cho added, "We will actively discuss, review, and decide on the contents of the request of the bereaved family by unifying it as a task force within the party."
(Photo = National Assembly Photo Reporters, Yonhap News)