Seoul's ruling party on Saturday announced the arrest of a former South Korean national security chief suspected of covering up information about the mysterious death of an official who was shot dead by North Korean soldiers near the dividing line between the two Koreas.
Read alsoIncident in the Yellow Sea, 1 South Korean killed
Director of the National Security Bureau under former President Moon Jae-in (2017-2022), "
Suh Hoon was arrested early this morning
," said a statement from the spokesperson for the People Power party, of President Yoon Suk-yeol.
The arrest followed the issuance by a judge of an arrest warrant motivated by "
the seriousness [of the facts], the position of the suspect and the risk that evidence will be destroyed
".
After former defense minister Suh Wook in October and a former coastguard chief, Suh Hoon is the third former senior official to be arrested in connection with the mysterious murder in the Yellow Sea of a South Korean fisheries administration official, Lee Dae-jun, in 2020.
He is accused of having ordered the destruction of intelligence documents to cover up this murder.
He is also suspected of manipulating evidence to support the government's version that Lee had sought to defect to the North.
In this case, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol strongly criticized the approach of his predecessor Moon Jae-in, whom he considered complacent towards Pyongyang.
He demanded that all the light be shed, accusing the previous administration of having botched the investigation to curry favor with North Korea.
Lee Dae-jun had been found in September 2020, floating in his life jacket in the vicinity of the North-South demarcation line.
The Moon government had initially claimed that Mr. Lee had tried to cross into North Korea to escape gambling debts and family problems.
But Lee's brother has continued to oppose this version, assuring that the latter would never have chosen to live in North Korea.