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| In this Feb. 3, 2021, file photo, National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won, right, listens to National Security Office Director Suh Hoon during a meeting at the government complex in Seoul. Newsis |
Probe launched over killing of fisheries official, deportation of NK fishermen
By Jung Min-ho
Two former chiefs of South Korea's intelligence agency are being investigated for allegedly abusing their positions to obstruct fact-finding efforts in past cases involving North Korea.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office said Thursday it is investigating the complaints against former National Intelligence Service (NIS) directors ― Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon ― a day after the spy agency filed the allegations based on the results of its internal probe.
Park, who served as NIS chief from July 2020 to May 2022, allegedly abused his power to "remove intelligence-related reports" unlawfully. The information was about a South Korean official who was killed in North Korean waters on Sept. 22, 2020.
Details about what information was discarded remain elusive. But the Chosun Ilbo daily said the reports contained intercepted messages between North Koreans that day, including ones showing the man drifting in waters identifying himself as a South Korean official and asking them for help. If true, this suggests he may have crossed the border by accident, unlike the Moon administration's claims that he intended to defect to the North.
Park is also accused of destroying public electronic records about the incident without going through proper procedures.
The bereaved family and lawmakers of the governing conservative People Power Party (PPP) believe the official was branded as a person attempting to defect and the NIS under Park deliberately omitted information that suggested otherwise, before reporting it to top decision makers at the presidential office.
Rep. Ha Tae-keung, chief of the party's special committee looking into the death, said he was puzzled when the NIS told him there was nothing to be briefed about after he demanded the intelligence information following the killing.
"I couldn't understand it then. Now I get it. The NIS had nothing to brief because it deleted it all," he said.
Park denied the allegations, accusing the current NIS leaders under the new Yoon Suk-yeol administration of politicizing the incident to score political points.
"I can't reveal the details, but the intelligence reports (allegedly deleted) were only shared with the NIS, which did not produce them … Given that it was not the original information source, why would I or anyone at the NIS do such a foolish thing?" he said in a statement. "Don't drag it into politics. I will fight against the attempts to regress the NIS into what it used to be."
The previous administration concluded that the official, who was shot dead and set on fire by the North Korean military, was trying to defect to the North. But the story took a dramatic turn as the military and police under the Yoon government reversed its previous investigation result and said evidence was not sufficient to show that he intended to defect.
Suh, who held the top NIS post from June 2017 to July 2020 before taking the leadership of the National Security Office (July 2020-May 2022), is suspected of stopping the investigation into two North Korean fishermen, who arrived in South Korean waters on Nov. 2, 2019, only to be deported five days later, because their intention to defect to the South "was not sincere."
Suh was allegedly behind wrapping up the investigation in just three days, unlike other cases that usually take weeks, if not months, to finish. Then, based on the results, security officials claimed that the fishermen were criminals who conspired with a third man to kill 16 people on their boat before fleeing. By Nov. 8, the fishermen and their boat were sent back to the North. It was the South's first-ever deportation of North Koreans against their will.
Human rights experts, including Suzanne Scholte, chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, are skeptical of the investigation results and criticize the decision as a violation of the country's U.N. treaty obligations that prohibit sending anyone back to a place where the person has a well-founded fear of persecution.
Rep. Yang Kum-hee, the PPP's floor spokeswoman, issued a statement to call for a thorough investigation behind the tragedies and "the cover-ups."
The presidential office said it would be "a serious crime" if the former spy chiefs prioritized North Korea's interests over South Korea's laws and the victims' human rights.
"We are paying attention to how the investigation is going," an official told reporters.
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