Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the public official shot in the West Sea, is holding a press conference on the 22nd at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, regarding the criminal complaint against officials from the Moon Jae-in administration's National Security Office and the Civil Affairs Office. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The prosecution investigating the 'West Sea Public Official Killing Incident' is summoning and questioning military intelligence network personnel to verify suspicions that military secrets and intelligence reports related to the case were deleted.
According to the legal community on the 14th, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) summoned three employees, including those in charge of managing the Military Integrated Information Processing System (MIMS), from the Defense Intelligence Headquarters as witnesses and is currently investigating them.
The prosecution is reportedly focusing on confirming the information processing procedures within MIMS and the nature of the classified information deleted at the time of the incident from these individuals.
The Ministry of National Defense is under suspicion of deleting some classified information, including intercepted materials within MIMS, that contradict the government's judgment that Mr. Lee Dae-jun, a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries employee who was killed by North Korean forces, had defected to the North.
The Ministry of National Defense stated that it took "necessary measures" to prevent some classified information from spreading to units unrelated to the duties, and that the "7-hour original interception" was not deleted.
If it is confirmed that the deleted information at the time contradicts the assumption that Mr. Lee defected to the North, the prosecution's investigation is expected to focus not only on whether the deletion occurred but also on the motive and the process of ordering the deletion.
Earlier, Mr. Lee's family filed a complaint with the prosecution against former Minister of National Defense Seo Wook and former Defense Intelligence Headquarters Director Lee Young-cheol, who had the authority to order the deletion of classified MIMS information.
On the 11th, the prosecution investigated Colonel Yoon Hyung-jin, head of the Defense Ministry's Policy Planning Division, as a witness, who held a press briefing overturning the possibility of Mr. Lee's voluntary defection. Separately, the day before, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) was raided in connection with allegations (abuse of authority under the National Intelligence Service Act, etc.) that former NIS Director Park Ji-won ordered the deletion of intelligence-related reports.
Former Director Park is suspected of instructing his close aide, the chief secretary, to order the deletion of reports within the NIS that emphasized the possibility of Mr. Lee's "drifting" rather than "voluntary defection."
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