The recent indictment of former President Moon Jae-in’s top officials in the investigation of the forced return of two North Korean fishermen in 2019 is “nothing more than political revenge,” an ex-Moon aide and sitting lawmaker said.
“This is political revenge against the last administration -- nothing more, nothing less,” Democratic Party of Korea Rep. Youn Kun-young, who served as the state affairs monitoring director in Moon’s Cheong Wa Dae, told The Korea Herald on Wednesday.
He said their own testimonies, along with initial intelligence findings, revealed that the two North Koreans killed their crewmates and that they did not want to be in South Korea.
“The fact that they did not tell our officials they wished to defect to South Korea right away indicates a lack of sincerity in their request to be admitted into the country,” he said. “They were trying to flee from getting caught in the first place.”
Lee Eun-jae, who was serving on the parliamentary intelligence committee when the repatriation took place, said she was briefed by authorities then that the decision to send them back was based on North Korea’s claims that they committed murder.
“From what I was briefed, that decision wasn’t based on whether they had intended to defect to South Korea,” she said in a phone call with The Korea Herald.
Seoul prosecutors opened an investigation into the deportation of the two North Koreans after the National Intelligence Service in July last year filed a criminal complaint on its former director director, Suh Hoon, over his alleged role in the decision.
After seven months of investigation, prosecutors on Tuesday indicted three others alongside Suh. They are Noh Young-min, who served as Moon's chief of staff; Chung Eui-yong, the former Cheong Wa Dae national security director; and Kim Yeon-cheol, the minister of unification.
In a release Tuesday, prosecutors said the former Moon officials had colluded to forcibly repatriate the North Korean fishermen, who were denied their rights to a fair trial and due process of law in South Korea as a result.
Prosecutors believe Chung, then-national security adviser to the president, and Suh, then-head of the spy service, conspired to obstruct the joint intelligence investigation into the forcible repatriation. The investigation was halted before it could be completed as a consequence of their interference, prosecutors said in the release.
Suh also deleted key details from the investigation reports, including the parts that said the North Korean fishermen had asked to be admitted to South Korea, prosecutors added.
The incident from 2019 came under fresh scrutiny in 2022 following the government’s release of the photographs of the two North Koreans seemingly resisting as they were handed over to the North’s authorities at the border village of Panmunjom.
Defector-turned-lawmaker Rep. Ji Seong-ho of the ruling People Power Party said he hoped Tuesday’s indictment would “serve as a warning against the cruel disregard for people’s lives.”
Ji, who worked as an activist helping North Korean defectors at risk of being repatriated in China and other countries before becoming a lawmaker, told The Korea Herald that “our authorities knew the fishermen would highly likely be returned to torture or execution.”
He said the North Korean regime has since used the two men’s forcible repatriation under Moon as propaganda to deter its people from trying to leave the country. “This has set a terrible precedent,” he said.
In September last year, Ji and other People Power Party lawmakers released the identities of the two forcibly returned men as Woo Beom-sun and Kim Hyun-wook, both in their mid-20s if still alive, urging North Korea to disclose their whereabouts.
