late fisheries official-apology
Coast Guard to apologize over controversial speculation on death of fisheries official
SEOUL, June 16 (Yonhap) -- The Coast Guard is expected to apologize for having previously presumed a South Korean fisheries official killed by North Korea's military near the western sea border in 2020 was attempting to defect to the North voluntarily, officials at the presidential National Security Office (NSO) said Thursday.
Besides the apology, the Coast Guard will also disclose its investigation documents on the mysterious death of the 47-year-old fisheries official, who was fatally shot by the North's military on Sept. 22, 2020, after going missing the previous day while on duty near South Korea's Yeonpyeong Island, the officials said.
The planned disclosure is expected to create significant political repercussions, as the preceding Moon Jae-in government had been reluctant to fully disclose information on the death of the official, identified only by his surname Lee, except saying that he appeared to be trying to defect to the North. The Moon administration even defied a court order to provide undisclosed information to his family.
The planned apology and information disclosure come as the NSO said it has suspended a judicial procedure pursued by the Moon government to block the disclosure of confidential information on Lee's death.
The NSO said it and the Coast Guard have withdrawn an appeal filed by the Moon administration against the Seoul Administrative Court's order last November for the disclosure of classified information on Lee's death.
The written request for the cancellation of the appeal was submitted to the Seoul court in the morning, the office added.
"It is hoped that the decision to withdraw the appeal will help correct the unfair measures of the past that restricted information even though one of our nationals was killed by the North Korean military," the office said.
The Coast Guard is scheduled to hold a news conference in the afternoon to offer an apology to Lee's bereaved family and disclose its investigation materials on the case.
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