Prosecutors Search the Houses of Park Jie-won, Suh Hoon, and Suh Wook in Connection to the Civil Servant Killed in the Yellow Sea

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office. Han Su-bin

The Prosecution Service, currently investigating the death of a civil servant in the Yellow Sea whom authorities had once concluded voluntarily defected to North Korea, conducted a search and seizure in the homes of former director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS) Park Jie-won, former director of the Cheongwadae Office of National Security Suh Hoon, and former Minister of National Defense Suh Wook on August 16.

Public Investigation Division 1 (chief prosecutor Yi Hui-dong) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office announced that they sent prosecutors and investigators to nearly a dozen locations including the residences of Park Jie-won, Suh Hoon and Suh Wook and were looking for evidence in connection to this case. The residences and offices of people connected to the case at the time including those in the Cheongwadae Office of National Security, the NIS, the Defense Ministry and the Coast Guard were included in the latest search and seizure.

Prosecutors are investigating the allegation that the Moon Jae-in government manipulated internal documents to reach the conclusion that Lee Dae-jun, a civil servant in the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, voluntarily defected to North Korea at the time of his death in North Korean waters in September 2020.

Last month, the National Intelligence Service reported former director Park for deleting an internal intelligence report from the time of Lee’s killing in the Yellow Sea without permission. An NIS agent drew up an internal report claiming that Lee was likely to have drifted into North Korean waters, rather than voluntarily defect, based on the intelligence collected at the time, but Park ordered his employees to delete the report.

Last month, Lee’s family also filed a report against the Cheongwadae national security director, Suh Hoon, claiming that he fabricated Lee’s case, concluding that Lee defected to North Korea. The family also filed a report against Minister Suh Wook arguing that he allegedly ordered employees to delete classified information in the military intelligence management system (MIMS). The defense ministry is suspected of deleting some information obtained through wiretapping in the MIMS, which showed that Lee did not voluntarily defect to North Korea but had drifted into North Korean waters at the time.

Prosecutors are expected to summon senior officials including Park Jie-won, Suh Hoon and Suh Wook for questioning as soon as they finish analyzing the results of the latest search.