Suh Hoon, former head of the Blue House National Security Office. Blue House Photo Reporters
The prosecution, which is investigating the murder of a public official in the West Sea (the West Sea case), requested an arrest warrant for former Blue House National Security Office chief Suh Hoon on the 29th. Seo was the chief executive officer of the North Korean security line under the Moon Jae-in administration.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office’s Public Investigation Division 1 (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) requested an arrest warrant for Seo on charges of abuse of authority and preparation of false official documents.
Seo is suspected of voluntarily defecting to North Korea at 1:00 am on September 23, 2020, immediately following the death of the late Lee Dae-joon, a public official of the Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, in North Korean waters. There is also an allegation that agencies such as the Ministry of National Defense, National Intelligence Service, and Korea Coast Guard wrote press releases to the effect that Mr. Lee voluntarily defected to North Korea.
Prosecutors believe that former Defense Minister Suh Wook and others ordered employees to delete confidential information from the Military Information Integrated Processing System (MIMS) in accordance with the policy of the National Security Office. On the 24th and 25th, the prosecution summoned former chief Seo and investigated the suspicion that he ordered the deletion of data and whether he had reported it to former President Moon Jae-in.
Chief Seo is in the position that he has never concluded that Mr. Lee voluntarily defected to North Korea or ordered the deletion of data. Former Minister Seo and others may have reduced some of the data distribution lines to maintain security at their own discretion, but they are claiming that the Blue House never gave such an order.
Prosecutors originally planned to prosecute former Defense Minister Seo Wook and former Korea Coast Guard Commissioner Kim Hong-hee by the 9th, but the plan went awry when the two people who were arrested were released due to the court’s decision to cite the request for an arrest warrant. At the time of Mr. Lee’s murder, the government announced that Mr. Lee voluntarily went to North Korea, but in June, following the launch of the Yoon Seok-yeol government, the Ministry of National Defense and the Coast Guard reversed their stance, saying that they might not prove that he voluntarily went to North Korea.
