Top officials of the previous Moon Jae-in administration have been arrested over the weekend on document fabrication and other charges.
This comes as part of an expanding investigation into the death of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea.
It is alleged that the Moon administration concluded without sufficient evidence that the fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, was killed while attempting to defect to North Korea.
Critics say that this was part of efforts to curry favor with Pyongyang. With these recent arrests, it appears that those accusations may hold some weight.
Shock arrests
Former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee were arrested over the past weekend on document fabrication and other charges. Other top officials could face charges in the expanding investigation.
“Special intelligence at the time showed Lee expressing his intention to defect to the North … How can including this intelligence in our judgment be a manipulation?” they said.
“We cannot imagine making groundless manipulations over a citizen’s life and honor,” Suh said.
The officials also denied allegations the then government did not do enough to save Lee, saying it was impossible to rescue Lee as he was in North Korean waters.
