The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office's 1st Public Investigation Division (Deputy Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong), who is investigating the 'the West Sea public official's attack case', requested an arrest warrant for former Defense Minister Seo Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner Kim Hong-hee on the 18th.
This is the first attempt to secure new recruits since the investigation began in June due to the accusation of the bereaved family.
In September 2020, the former Minister of Oceans and Fisheries deleted military secrets from the MIMS (Military Information Processing System) or made false statements in the Joint Chiefs of Staff report. I am charged with ordering the contents to be written (abuse of authority, writing false public documents, damage to public electronic records, etc.).
According to the audit results announced by the Board of Audit and Inspection on the 13th, a ministerial meeting was held at 1 am on September 23, 2020, the day after Mr. Lee was assassinated. 60 reports have been deleted.
At the same time, the National Intelligence Service also deleted a total of 46 data, including intelligence reports, without permission.
The meeting, which was held at the time, presided over by former National Security Office Director Suh Hoon, was attended by former Minister Suh, former National Intelligence Service Director Park Ji-won, and former Unification Minister Lee In-young.
In other words, the conclusion of the Board of Audit and Inspection is that, under the leadership of the National Security Office, related agencies such as the Ministry of National Defense and the National Intelligence Service concealed and distorted various evidence to drive the Lee case to be a 'voluntary defection'.
In this regard, in the National Defense Commission emergency report on September 24, 2020, Minister Jeon said about the content of the meeting at the time, "It was such a meeting to put together the intelligence we know so far."
Former Commissioner Kim is the general manager of the Coast Guard, which investigated the circumstances of Mr. Lee's case, and was charged with abuse of authority and writing false official documents.
He is accused of using unconfirmed evidence to fabricate Mr. Lee's defection, concealing existing evidence, distorting experimental results, etc.
The Board of Audit and Inspection argued that the motives announced by the Coast Guard were unconfirmed or groundless, such as that the slippers left on the ship at the time belonged to Mr. Lee, or that Mr. Lee, who was arranging for blue crab purchases, used the purchase proceeds as gambling funds.
The Board of Audit and Inspection also secured a statement from a Coast Guard official who said, "I'll do what I didn't see" in the process of reporting data from the Ministry of National Defense, etc., that Mr. Lee was wearing a life jacket with Chinese characters written on it when Mr. Lee was discovered.
Prosecutors summoned former Minister Seo and former Commissioner Kim on the 13th and 14th to question the police officers at the time, but it is known that both of them strongly denied the allegations.
After securing new recruits for former Minister Seo and former Commissioner Kim, the prosecution is expected to summon Suh Hoon, former chief of staff and former NIS chief Park Ji-won to investigate the 'upper line' of the allegations.