The Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong), which is investigating the 'West Sea Civil Servant Hit Case', requested an arrest warrant today (29th), former head of the National Security Office, Suh Hoon, who was the chief executive officer of the Moon Jae-in government's North Korea security line.
It is the first time that the prosecution has requested an arrest warrant for a high-ranking official in the former government.
It is known that the prosecution decided that an arrest investigation was inevitable after confirming the seriousness of the matter and concerns about the destruction of evidence during the investigation of former Chief Seo.
At a meeting of related ministers held around 1:00 am on September 23, 2020, the day after the late Lee Dae-joon, a public official at the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, was killed by the North Korean military, former chief Seo made a hasty decision on Lee's "voluntary defection to North Korea" and requested that the relevant ministries delete confidential intelligence that conflicts with this. (Abuse of authority, obstruction of exercise of rights).
There is also an allegation of having related organizations such as the Ministry of National Defense, National Intelligence Service, and Korea Coast Guard write false information in reports or press releases (creating false public documents and the same event) in order to drive Mr. Lee's case to 'voluntarily defected to North Korea'.
Prosecutors suspect that former Defense Minister Seo Wook ordered the deletion of confidential information, such as wiretapping information, from the Integrated Military Information Processing System (MIMS) in accordance with the instructions of the National Security Office.
Park Ji-won, former director of the National Intelligence Service, is also suspected of ordering the deletion of internal intelligence reports.
The prosecution called former Chief Seo on the 24th and 25th of this month and questioned the suspicion of making such judgments or instructions, as well as what was reported to former President Moon Jae-in in the process and what he ordered.
Chief Seo denied the allegation, stating that he was transparent about the situation at the time, and that there was no fact that he had driven Lee to North Korea or ordered the deletion of data without any grounds.
In addition, he stated that he received instructions from former President Moon, who was briefed on all related information, that 'accurate confirmation of facts should be prioritized, and the facts should be informed to the public'.
These details were also included in the audit results of the Board of Audit and Inspection.