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Lee One-seok, Korea’s new prosecutor general, shakes hands with someone before entering the National Assembly members’ office building in Yeouido, Seoul, on Sept. 21. (pool photo)

On Wednesday, President Yoon Suk-yeol delivered a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York in which he made no mention of the North Korea nuclear issue. Meanwhile, on the same day in Korea, prosecutors summoned former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul, who oversaw inter-Korean relations under the Moon Jae-in administration, and others for two consecutive days of questioning.

In their investigation into the repatriation process of the North Korean sailors who killed 16 of their fellow fishermen, the prosecution has rounded up not only key security figures of the former Moon administration but now also brought inter-Korean relations into the mix as targets of possible criminal charges.

While formal and informal talks with North Korea and the Yoon Suk-yeol administration are inevitable, some predict that the prosecution will continue to dictate inter-Korean relations for the foreseeable future.

The third national security, election and labor department of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, headed by Lee Jun-beom, which is overseeing the investigation into the repatriation of the North Korean fishers, called former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul in as a defendant on Wednesday. Kim was also called in the previous day for questioning.

Kim Yeon-chul, who was the unification minister at the time of the case in question in November 2019, told the National Assembly Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee that the fishers’ intention to defect was “not sincere” and that they were sent back to North Korea based on this judgment.

When asked who was behind the decision to repatriate the North Koreans, he kept his reply brief: “National Security Office.”

Regarding this, the prosecution also summoned Kim Yu-geun, the former first deputy director of the Blue House National Security Office (NSO), for their probe into the same matter on this day. He had also been questioned the previous day.

Taking together the current investigations by prosecutors with the outlook from the political realm, it appears that prosecutors are zeroing in on high-ranking figures from the former Moon administration, including Suh Hoon (former director of the National Intelligence Service, NIS), Noh Young-min (former presidential chief of staff), Chung Eui-yong (former director of the Blue House NSO), and Kim Yeon-chul (former minister of unification).

After analyzing the evidence obtained through the search and seizure of the Presidential Archives, the team of prosecutors on the case has been expanding the scope of its investigation since last month through daily questioning of Suh Ho, the former vice minister of unification; Kim Yu-geun, the abovementioned former first deputy director of the NSO; Kim Joon-hwan, the former third deputy director at the NIS; and former Unification Minister Kim Yeon-chul.

Suh Hoon is suspected of prematurely ending the joint investigation into the North Korean fishers while also submitting the investigation report to the Unification Ministry excluding terms such as “forced investigation” and “defection” and stating there was “no suspicion” of the fishers’ actions having an ideological basis in communism.

As director of the Blue House NSO, Chung was in charge of the control tower at the time of the decision to repatriate the fishermen.

The core of the investigations into the repatriation of the two North Koreans and the killing of the South Korean public servant in the Yellow Sea — investigations through which the prosecution is directly targeting the security policy line of the Moon administration — is concerned with whether inappropriate orders were given by the former administration and whether parts of the initial investigation’s report were deleted or altered.

After completing the first round of search and seizure operations of the Presidential Archives and the investigation into working-level officials, prosecutors have now moved on to investigating the former chief of the NIS and a former senior National Security Office official.

Within the prosecution service and political circles, some believe there’s a possibility that the prosecution might eventually try and launch an investigation directly targeting the former president.

However, even if the case goes to court, it will likely be long before any final conclusion is reached. Moreover, the trial process itself will inevitably end up affecting inter-Korean relations as a whole going forward.

“It is not desirable to expand the legal principle on the abuse of authority to national security relations,” commented a lawyer who formerly worked for the prosecution.

On the other hand, a lawyer who formerly worked as a senior prosecutor mentioned the need for an investigation, saying, “I heard that there was more than a fair share of overreach during the Moon Jae-in government."

By Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter; Kang Jae-gu, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]