[단독]檢 “Request to Seo Hoon and Seo Wook to ‘create data that highlights North Korea'”

It was revealed that the prosecution uncovered the circumstances in which former Blue House National Security Bureau chief Suh Hoon (in prison) asked former Defense Minister Seo Wook to create materials pointing out the possibility that the assassinated official defected to North Korea at the time of the assassination attack on a public official in the West Sea.

According to Dong-A Ilbo’s coverage on the 14th, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor’s Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) found that former Chief Seo was arrested on September 23 2020, around 11:00. he learned the circumstances in which he mentioned the direction of the report to the Minister.

He is said to have told former Minister Seo, who was expected to attend the signaling ceremony of the position of the new Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Chief of Staff of the Army, Navy and Air Force, held that day at the Blue House, with the intention that “the Ministry of National Defense should sort things out in the direction that Lee is most likely to defect to North Korea.” The prosecution sees this remark as the beginning of the “Wolbuk drive”.

At the second related ministerial meeting held in the Blue House at 10:00 the same day, it is known that former Chief Seo decided to cover up the fact that Mr. Lee was assassinated by the North Korean army and his body was incinerated, but decided to only disclose the facts found in North Korean waters.

The same day, around 8:00, Seo received a report from the National Intelligence Service stating that if the fact of Mr. Lee’s murder were revealed, “a strain in inter-Korean relations, a loss of international prestige of the North Korea, and its overseas position is expected to decline,” Seo said.

In addition, after the second related ministerial meeting, it was investigated whether former Chief Seo instructed the Ministry of National Defense’s press release to add content such as “Only shoes were found on the ship, but no missing persons were found “. Former Defense Intelligence Director Lee Young-chul, who received the order, reported a draft press release containing this content to former Minister Seo, and it was reported that it was finally distributed after reviewing the is former Chief Seo and former Deputy Director Seo Joo-seok of the National Security Bureau.

Regarding this, Jeon’s side denies the “rush to North Korea” allegation, saying, “At the time, it was not established that Mr. Lee went to North Korea, and the suspicion that he selected and canceled the information deployed in North Korea Korea was not real”.

Reporter Park Jong-min blick@donga.com
Reporter Jang Eun-ji jej@donga.com

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