Prosecutors Conduct On-Site Inspection in Yeonpyeong Sea Area for 'West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident'

Similar 'Sea Conditions' at the Time of Lee Dae-jun's Shooting... Investigation Reference Planned
Reconstruction of the 'Defection Announcement' Process... Presidential Archives Search to Take an Additional 1-2 Weeks

Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the civil servant shot in the West Sea, is moving after holding a press conference related to the criminal complaint against officials from the National Security Office and the Civil Affairs Office of the Moon Jae-in administration at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on June 22. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The prosecution investigating the ‘West Sea Civil Servant Shooting Incident’ conducted an on-site verification by directly visiting the waters near Yeonpyeong Island to reconstruct the situation at the time.

According to the legal community on the 29th, the Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Hee-dong) sent prosecutors and investigators to the waters near Yeonpyeong Island where the late Lee Dae-jun went missing at the time of the incident to conduct on-site verification. The verification is scheduled to continue until the 30th.

To confirm the situation at the time, the prosecution plans to board the Mugunghwa 5, a vessel of the same class as the Mugunghwa 10 that Lee was on, and go out to sea during the time frame when he disappeared to conduct the investigation.

The prosecution plans to refer to the investigation by checking the sea conditions at the time, as the season when Lee went missing and the current time of the on-site verification are similar, and by boarding a vessel similar to the one Lee was on.

Lee went missing on September 21, 2020, from the fishing guidance ship Mugunghwa 15 and was shot and killed by North Korean soldiers. At the time, the Korea Coast Guard announced an interim investigation result a week after the incident, estimating that Lee had voluntarily defected to North Korea. However, the Coast Guard reversed the investigation result in a press briefing held last June, 1 year and 9 months after the incident, stating that they could not find any intention of defection by Lee.

The prosecution is verifying the specific circumstances under which the Coast Guard made the ‘presumed defection’ judgment and whether there were any instructions from ‘higher-ups,’ including the Blue House, during the investigation process. Since the 1st of this month, the investigation team has been conducting a search and seizure at the Presidential Archives to reconstruct the decision-making process of the higher-ups regarding Lee’s case. The search and seizure is expected to take about 1 to 2 more weeks.