“Simplified Chinese” Characters on a Life Vest Worn by the Civil Servant Killed in the Yellow Sea

Lee Rae-jin (right), the older brother of the late Lee Dae-jun, a civil servant in the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries who died after he was shot by North Korean soldiers in September 2020, wait for former defense minister Suh Wook, as he leaves the Seoul Central District Court after the suspect questioning (warrant validity review) prior to his arrest on October 21. Yonhap News

Prosecutors investigating the death of a civil servant in the Yellow Sea, allegedly disguised as an attempt to defect to North Korea, believe that the Chinese characters written on the life vest worn by the late Lee Dae-jun, a public official in the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, when he was discovered by North Korean soldiers, were likely to be simplified Chinese. Earlier, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) argued on these grounds that Lee had no intention to defect to North Korea and put more weight on the possibility of Lee receiving help from a Chinese fishing boat. But in this case, authorities still have to explain how Lee, who was rescued by the Chinese fishing vessel, fell back into the sea wearing the life vest.

According to the coverage by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on October 25, Public Investigation Division 1 (chief prosecutor Yi Hui-dong) of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office concluded that the Chinese characters written on Lee’s life vest were simplified Chinese used in mainland China after recently analyzing the case materials from the initial investigation. Simplified Chinese characters are clearer with fewer strokes than traditional Chinese characters. They are different from the traditional Chinese characters used in South Korea, North Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. This is why the prosecutors believe Lee was wearing a Chinese life vest, not used in South and North Korea, at the time of his death.

Lee went missing after leaving the pilot house of a fishery guidance boat near Soyeonpyeong-do Island in the Yellow Sea at dawn on September 21, 2020. He was discovered the following afternoon on September 22 in North Korean waters. North Korean soldiers shot Lee that night and burned his body. The Coast Guard announced an interim investigation result on September 29, eight days after Lee went missing, and said Lee voluntarily defected to North Korea.

The Chinese characters written on the life vest were key evidence that the BAI presented claiming that the Moon Jae-in government insisted on the “defection story” despite that they could not conclude he had actually tried to defect to the North. On October 13, the BAI released the results of an audit into the “Yellow Sea incident,” and said that the Moon Jae-in government failed to disclose the fact that Lee was wearing a life vest with Chinese characters written on it. According to the Board, an official from the Coast Guard gave a statement claiming that Kim Hong-hee, the commissioner general of the Coast Guard at the time, said, “I did not see this,” when receiving a report on the Chinese characters printed on the life vest. On October 22, the prosecutors arrested Commissioner General Kim and former defense minister Suh Wook and have been questioning them on the motive and process of how the defense ministry and the Coast Guard came to announce that Lee voluntarily defected.

The Democratic Party of Korea refuted that the conclusion that the announcement by the Moon Jae-in government was wrong could not be reached based just on the Chinese characters. In a parliamentary inspection of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office on October 18, Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Eui-kyeom said, “From what I know, the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not include it in the report to Cheongwadae because it was SI (special information), and they thought that the Chinese characters were not important.” He then criticized, “You completely overturned this case with this one element and are once again making accusations of making up a defection story.”

If the life vest was from China, investigators must identify how Lee came to wear that life vest and check to see if there is any way to obtain the life vest in Korea, They also have to verify whether Lee was really rescued by a Chinese fishing boat as mentioned by the BAI, and if so, then how he ended up in the sea again.

Prosecutors are investigating the details on how Lee came to wear the life vest with Chinese characters at the time of his death and also tracking his route in the Yellow Sea. The Prosecution Service sent prosecutors and investigators to the waters around Yeonpyeongdo Island in the Yellow Sea and conducted a field examination on September 28-29. In 2020, the Coast Guard concluded that Lee did not simply drift into North Korean waters, but got there through deliberate efforts based on the results of the drift forecast system. Prosecutors are expected to soon receive the original audit materials from the Board of Audit and Inspection and plan to further examine the details.