Intelligence on the Civil Servant Killed by North Korea Deleted from Defense Ministry’s Network, the 2 Defectors Sent back to North Korea After the Blue House Abruptly Halted Investigation, Former Intelligence Chiefs Park Ji-won, Suh Hoon, Others Charged

2022-7-12, Tara O

On July 6, 2022, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) filed criminal charges against Park Ji-won and Suh Hoon, NIS directors in the Moon Jae-in administration, for violating the National Intelligence Service Act (abuse of authority).

Park Jie-won (박지원), who was the NIS Director from July 2020 to May 2022 (a little after Moon Jae-in’s term ended), was reported to have destroyed intelligence reports related to Lee Dae-jun’s case.  Lee Dae-jun was the South Korean civil servant in the Ministry of Ocean and Fisheries, who was shot and killed by North Korea and his body burnt at sea in September 2020.  The Moon administration framed the events as if Lee was defecting to North Korea, but his family retorted that was not the case. 

In a separate case, Suh Hoon (서훈), NIS Director from June 1, 2017 – July 2, 2020, was charged with prematurely stopping an investigation into  the case of the two fishermen who defected from North Korea, but were forcibly sent back to North Korea by the Moon administration on November 7, 2019.  In addition to the Abuse of Authority, Suh is also charged with Fabricating False Public Documents (허위 공문서 작성).  After NIS, Suh Hoon moved to the Blue House to become the Director of the National Security Office from July 3, 2020 – May 9, 2022 (until the end of the Moon administration).  Suh replaced Chung Eui-yong (정의용), who was the Director of the National Security Office from May 20, 2017 – July 2, 2020.  After May 2022, Suh Hoon hurriedly left South Korea.  He is believed to have gone to the U.S., probably to avoid the investigation.

On June 20, 2022, Park Sang-hak, president of the Fighters for a Free North Korea, filed a complaint with the Seoul National Police Agency against Suh Hoon (then-NIS Director), Chung Eui-yong (then-Director, National Security Office), and Kim Yoo-geun (then-1^st Deputy at the National Security Office) for the Crimes of Aiding and Abetting Murder (살인방조죄), Abuse of Authority (직권남용죄), and Crimes of Fleeing (the country, most applicable to Suh Hoon) (범인도피죄) related to the forced repatriation of the two defectors.

Related to the same forced repatriation, on July 12, 2022, Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) (북한인권정보센터) representatives filed charges at the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office against eleven Moon administration officials, including Chung Eui-yong, Kim Yoo-keun, Kim Hyun-jong (김현종) (the 2^nd Deputy at the National Security Office), Suh Hoon, Choi Yong-hwan (최용환) (1^st Deputy, NIS), Kim Yeon-chul, Seo Ho (서호) (then-Vice Minister of Unification; Acting Minister of Unification during June 19-July 27, 2020), and a Lieutenant Colonel (Battalion Commander at the JSA, see here for more information) for crimes, including Abuse of Authority (직권남용), Dereliction of Duty (직무유기), Unlawful Arrest (불법체포), Confinement (감금), the Crime of Fleeing, and Evidence Tampering (증거인멸).  They stated, “The repatriation of the defector fishermen, who expressed their intention to defect (to South Korea), is a violation of sovereignty by renouncing the jurisdiction of the Republic of Korea and a violation of human rights.”

(Note: About a month before the end of Moon Jae-in’s presidency, the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK, Deobureo Minjoo Party) introduced a law–the “Complete Deprivation of Prosecutors’ Investigation Authority,” which takes away investigative authority from the prosecutors. The law was passed and signed by Moon Jae-in days before he departed the Blue House in early March 2022. It is to take effect on September 10, 2022.)

More Details Emerge Contradicting Moon Administration’s False Accusations

In both cases, further details are emerging that counter the Moon administration’s narrative, and show severe violations of human rights as well as acts that help the adversary, North Korea.

Lee Dae-jun’s case

On September 21, 2020, Lee Dae-jun was reported missing from a government ship on the West Sea.   In the morning the next day (September 22), the South Korean authorities became aware that Lee Dae-jun was alive floating at sea, and a report went up to then-president Moon Jae-in, but no orders were given to try to rescue the South Korean citizen.  That night after 9 p.m., North Korea shot and killed Lee Dae-jun and incinerated his body at sea.

The Blue House convened emergency meetings of the National Security Council (NSC) about Lee’s situation at 1 a.m. and again at 10 a.m. on September 23, attended by the National Security Director Suh Hoon (Chair), NIS Director Park Jie-won, and Defense Minister Seo Wook (서욱) (Defense Minister from September 18, 2020 to May 11, 2022).  Instead of any decisions to try to rescue Lee Dae-jun, it appears what came out of the meetings was an instruction to destroy the information about Lee.  

It was revealed that after the National Security Council (NSC) held meetings, “about 40 pieces of secret information regarding Lee’s death were deleted, including intercepted North Korean information about Lee, from MIMS,” a Defense Ministry’s classified system.  Deleting such information from the system requires a decision from the highest levels.  The deletion occurred over two days, September 23 and 24, 2020.

It is for the deletion of such crucial sensitive information for which the NIS filed charges against its former director Park Jie-won.  The deleted documents at NIS include a report prepared by the NIS analysts assessing that Lee was adrift (after falling from a boat), rather than defecting to North Korea. The deleted report used intercepted intelligence from the military that showed Lee Dae-jun identified himself as a Republic of Korea (ROK) civil servant and asked the North Koreans for assistance.   It appears that Suh Hoon, the National Security Director at the Blue House instructed the destruction of the classified reports and Park Jie-won carried it out at NIS.  However, Park Jie-won denied it.

Another event occurred at the time of the 1^st NSC meeting.  On September 23, 2020 at 1 a.m. (Seoul time), Moon Jae-in’s pre-recorded video of his keynote address regarding the end of the war declaration was shown at the United Nations General Assembly, which prompted speculation that they tried to fit the issue of Lee Dae-jun’s death at the hands of North Korea in line with the Moon government’s North Korea policy.  In other words, the Moon administration wanted to ensure North Korea does not get blamed for the murder of a South Korean citizen, when Moon was trying to get the support of the U.S. and other states in his quest for an “end of war” declaration.

On September 24, the Moon administration suggested that the dead civil servant defected to North Korea, which essentially turned Lee into a traitor.  This accusation turned out to be a fabrication.  The Moon administration never provided any evidence to form a basis for their accusation, but its assertion was extremely hurtful to Lee’s family.  See here for a letter from his son.  The Coast Guard recently reversed their earlier position only after the Moon administration ended, saying there is no evidence of Lee defecting to North Korea, and apologized.

The Two Fishermen Escapees Case

The Moon administration justified its action of forcibly returning two young fishermen to North Korea by falsely accusing them of murdering 16 North Koreans, although there was no evidence.  The administration also claimed the two fishermen wrote statements ‘even if I die, I want to return to my homeland (North Korea).’  Both of these accusations are not supported by evidence, and new information revealed  in recent days refutes such an argument.

Doh Hee-yun (도희윤), president of the Happy Unification Road (행복한통일로) and the Solidarity for Abductees and Defectors (피랍탈북연대), relayed what he heard from a multitude of North Koreans who were familiar with the situation.  Doh’s interview was published in the Monthly Chosun on July 8, 2022.  He said, “The Korean fishermen who were forcibly repatriated to North Korea were not murderers, but rather young North Koreans who defected (North Korea), because they were caught making a statement criticizing Kim Jong-un.”  He further stated, “the two people are not murderers of fellow fishermen, but were laborers belonging to the “storm troop unit” (돌격대) in the Kalma district in Wonsan.” The “storm troops” in this case means young people recruited throughout North Korea to pursue major core projects.  Doh said Kim Jong-un formed the unit to “complete his long-cherished development project of coastal tourism at the Kalma district in Wonsan.”  They wrote a statement criticizing Kim Jong-un when they felt their lives were at risk due to the brutal work conditions.  Unfortunately, the statement was discovered, and they defected to South Korea, because in North Korea, criticizing a leader is a crime of subversion and is punishable by death.

The same Chosun Monthly pointed out that “North Korea’s position is to never let dissidents fall into the hands of the ‘enemy,’ and often charges any dissenters “with murder or drug use in order to prevent them from escaping,” or in cases they do succeed in escaping North Korea, use the accusations to discredit their claims.

Doe lamented that “if the information I have obtained is correct, the Moon Jae-in government believed only the North Korean regime, and committed an anti-constitutional and inhumane crime of driving two young men, who fled to our country against Kim Jong-un’s dictatorship, into the pit of death” and emphasized the need to reveal the truth and hold accountable those responsible.

The Moon administration claimed the two youth also wrote statements expressing their desire to return to North Korea “even if I die,” but that turned out to be fabricated as well.  Chung Eui-yong was the National Security Director at the Blue House at the time of the incident.  In 2021, when Chung was moving on to become Foreign Minister, he even testified at the National Assembly that the 2 fishermen gave “absolutely no intent to defect” to South Korea.  The government recently admitted that they indeed hand wrote statements expressing their desire to defect to South Korea.

Why would the two young fishermen risk their lives to escape to South Korea just to return to North Korea to die?  That does not make sense.  Additionally, after their blindfolds were removed at the DMZ and realized what was about to occur, they fell into despair, and one began to weep and another rammed his head against the wall.   It is because they did not realize until then that they were being sent back to North Korea, where the punishment of death awaits them.  As the below photos released on July 12, 2022 show, they physically resisted stepping across the MDL into North Korea, but were overwhelmed by force that pushed and pulled them across the MDL.

The Moon administration also returned the fishing boat to North Korea, after it sanitized it. If North Korea is supposed to investigate a murder case, why would the Moon administration destroy the evidence (the fishing boat) by sanitizing it?  This is yet another act that does not make sense.   The sanitization was done by the NIS, not the Coast Guard or the ROK Navy.

On July 7, 2022, more information about the Blue House’s role was revealed.    On November 4, 2019, 2 days after the two fishermen arrived in South Korea, a meeting convened at the Blue House, chaired by then-Chief of Staff Noh Young-min (노영민), to determine what steps to take regarding the two defectors. Afterwards, the NIS’s initial plan to investigate was abruptly cancelled, and the decision was made to send the two defectors back to North Korea.  Suh Hoon was the NIS Director then.

The next day on November 4, 2019, then-president Moon Jae-in sent a personal letter to Kim Jong-un, inviting him to the upcoming ROK-ASEAN Special Summit in Busan to be held on November 27, 2019, one of numerous attempts by Moon to appeal to Kim Jong-un to attend the Summit.  Along with the personal invitation, Moon also expressed his desire to hand over the two defectors and their fishing boat to North Korea, as if the 2 defectors were gifts to Kim Jong-un in exchange for Kim’s visit.

Ironically, it was North Korea that unilaterally disclosed the secret communications; The South Korean public was in the dark.  On November 21, 2019, KCNA announced “On November 5, President Moon Jae-in of South Korea sent a polite letter to the Chairman of the State Affairs Commission of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (Kim Jong Un) earnestly inviting him to attend this special leaders’ meeting.”  It further stated, South Korea “has sent a fervent request to let a special envoy visit (if Kim Jong-un can’t go), but “We know that the south side is eagerly looking forward to (Kim Jong-un’s) visit to Busan and is preparing at the highest level for the reception, including the security and protocol, but what exactly can north and south do by meeting, and what meaning would such a (unproductive) meeting have?” and publicly declined the invitation.

This prompted the defector community and the public at large to question Moon’s motive for sending the defectors back to North Korea, “even to their death.” They asked whether Moon was offering the two defectors as a “gift” to Kim Jong-un to be sacrificed for the Moon administration’s desperately hoped-for visit by Kim Jong-un.

It also was revealed recently that soon after the Moon administration inhumanely sent the two defectors to North Korea, the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism prepared the “Seoul-Pyongyang Joint Bid and Host Plan for the 2032 Summer Olympics” in November 2019.

An NIS official stated that upon instructions from the Blue House, Suh Hoon prematurely cancelled the NIS investigations into the murder claims, and the forced repatriation of the defectors occurred exceptionally quickly afterwards.

The military quickly prepared a public statement right after the issue of repatriation became public due to a text message from the battalion commander at the JSA  to Kim Yoo-keun (1^st Deputy, National Security Office) which was captured in a photograph and reported by the media.  The military, however, could not release the statement, since the National Security Office strictly controlled the two defectors case.

Despite the Moon administration’s claim that there was no intention to defect, a recent revelation makes their intention to defect clear.  On July 11, 2022, the Unification Ministry officially verified that there were statements of intent to defect handwritten by the two escapees. 

Then-Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul (김연철) stated he heard of the existence of the statements of intent to defect later, since they did not have jurisdiction over the two defectors.  Around the time of the forced repatriation, the Unification Ministry announced to the media that the two defectors killed 16 fellow fishermen.  The Unification Ministry now stated that they made the announcement after the National Security Office at the Blue House required the Ministry to do so.

Conclusion

So much went wrong.  The Moon Jae-in government gave up the Republic of Korea’s sovereignty and violated the human rights of its citizens, rather sacrificed the citizens’ lives, instead of defending the ROK’s sovereignty and protecting the ROK citizens.  The acts were so egregious that they must be investigated and those responsible held to account.  Additionally, Korean institutions must be improved with strong safeguards to protect the ROK and its citizens from the tyrannical fiat of a small coterie of those in powerful positions, even at the highest levels.  This is the homework for not only those in the top echelons of the current government, but also the public at large.