‘West Sea Official Shooting’ Moon Government Security Line Denies Allegations, "Never Concealed"

Seohun "Never Had Any Thought of Concealment"
Seowook "Ordered Restriction on Intelligence Distribution Related to the Incident"

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] High-ranking officials of the Moon Jae-in administration, who were prosecuted on charges of concealing the ‘West Sea Public Official Shooting Incident,’ have completely denied the allegations in court.

On the 20th, during the first pretrial hearing of former National Security Office Director Seo Hoon and former Minister of National Defense Seo Wook, held by the Criminal Division 25-2 of the Seoul Central District Court (Presiding Judges Park Jeong-je, Park Sa-rang, Park Jeong-gil), all senior officials from the previous administration’s security line stated that they could not acknowledge the criminal facts charged by the prosecution.

The defense attorney for former Director Seo said, "After the shooting incident occurred, there was never any thought of concealing it, and it is difficult to agree with the claim that false facts were fabricated to portray the victim as having defected to the North."

The defense attorney for former Minister Seo also stated, "He instructed to limit the distribution of intelligence related to the incident, but never ordered deletion. Since this was a decision made from the perspective of national security, he denies the charges."

Former National Intelligence Service Director Park Ji-won, former Secretary to the Director of the National Intelligence Service Noh Eun-chae, and former Commissioner of the Korea Coast Guard Kim Hong-hee, who were also indicted together, said, "We deny the charges."

Former National Security Office Director Suh Hoon, who was the top official in the Moon Jae-in administration's North Korea security line during the 'West Sea Civilian Shooting Incident,' is attending the warrant hearing held at the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 2nd of last month. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

At the trial, the defendants argued that it was difficult to exercise their right to defense because the prosecution submitted an enormous amount of evidence all at once.

The defense for former Director Park said, "The prosecution bundled all evidence related to the charges against other defendants, resulting in about 60,000 pages. We request that evidence related to each defendant be specified and separated."

However, the prosecution responded that since the criminal acts of the co-defendants are part of one large case, it is difficult to organize the evidence separately.

The court decided to hold another pretrial hearing on the 27th to proceed with the evidence admission process.