Coast Guard Overturns Investigation Results After 1 Year and 9 Months
Woo Sang-ho Says "No Intention to Cooperate"... Lee Responds, "Isn't Truth-Finding the Democratic Party's Usual Motto?"
[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] Lee Jun-seok, leader of the People Power Party, asserted that "the full truth of the West Sea government official shooting incident must be fully disclosed."
On the 17th, Lee stated through his social media (SNS), "The Northward defection fabrication incident is truly a situation that harms the existence of freedom and human rights."
Previously, in September 2020, when a fisheries supervisor named Lee from the West Sea Fisheries Guidance Management Unit under the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries fell into the sea, he had no intention of defecting to North Korea, but the Moon Jae-in administration fabricated it as a 'voluntary defection' case.
Lee said, "For the sake of the false peace promoted by the Democratic Party, there needs to be an expression of public anger stronger than a six-sided club against the arrogance that can ignore one person's honor and human rights, as well as the pain of the bereaved families."
Regarding the People Power Party's demand to review the sealed presidential records related to the West Sea government official shooting incident, and Woo Sang-ho, emergency committee chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, saying "there is no intention to cooperate," Lee said, "Isn't the Democratic Party's usual motto 'truth investigation'?" He urged, "Just as they strongly insisted on truth investigation centered on victims and bereaved families in cases like the May 18 Gwangju Uprising and the Sewol ferry disaster, they should do the same for the Northward defection fabrication incident."
Park Sang-chun, Chief of Incheon Coast Guard Station (left), and Yoon Hyung-jin, Director of Policy Planning Division, Defense Policy Office, Ministry of National Defense, are greeting each other after respectively finishing the final investigation briefing and additional explanation on the 'West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident' at the Incheon Coast Guard Station in Yeonsu-gu, Incheon, on the 16th. / Photo by Yonhap News
On the same day, Kwon Seong-dong, floor leader of the People Power Party, criticized, "(The Moon Jae-in administration's announcement that government official Lee voluntarily defected) was full of problems," adding, "The Moon Jae-in administration labeled the South Korean government official who was shot and burned by North Korean gunfire as a defector. The Democratic Party also played along with this defection smear."
He continued, "The Moon Jae-in administration's low posture toward North Korea deteriorated to the point of prioritizing North Korea's concerns over the lives of its own citizens," adding, "Now it is time to reveal who, for what reason, and under what circumstances distorted the death of the South Korean government official and damaged the honor of the bereaved family."
Meanwhile, government official Lee, affiliated with the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, went missing on September 21, 2020, off the coast of Soyeonpyeong Island in the West Sea and was shot dead by North Korean soldiers the next day. At the time, the Coast Guard and Ministry of National Defense judged that Lee had the intention to defect voluntarily based on the fact that he was wearing a life jacket and floating on debris, as well as his usual complaints about financial distress.
However, the bereaved family has claimed that Lee had no intention to defect, and on the 16th, one year and nine months later, the Coast Guard reversed its judgment, stating in its investigation results that "no evidence was found to recognize the intention of voluntary defection."
The Ministry of National Defense bowed its head, saying, "We caused confusion among the public by announcing that it was presumed he attempted to defect at the time," and "We regret that we could not disclose everything due to security reasons."
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