Nam Hyun-woo has worked as a staff writer at The Korea Times since 2013, mostly covering business and politics. He currently belongs to the Business Desk where he covers topics such as emerging tech, AI, ICT and Korea's chaebol community. Prior to joining the team, he was the paper's correspondent for the presidential office of Korea during the Yoon Suk Yeol and Moon Jae-in administrations.
President zeroes in on unresolved incidents during previous gov't
President Yoon Suk-yeol answers to reporters' questions as he enters the presidential office in Yongsan District, Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
By Nam Hyun-woo
Yoon hints at more info disclosure on NK-related incidents during Moon administration
By Nam Hyun-woo
President Yoon Suk-yeol is expanding his efforts to reveal undisclosed information on incidents related to North Korea during the previous liberal Moon Jae-in government, in what appears to be an attempt to reopen unresolved issues for reinvestigation.
During an impromptu meeting with reporters, Tuesday, Yoon said the presidential office is considering “finding the truth” related to the 2019 repatriation of two North Korean sailors.
“If someone enters the country, he or she is considered a South Korean national under the Constitution, and many people had questions on why the government repatriated the sailors then,” Yoon said when asked his opinion on the case. “It seems like we (the presidential office) are looking into it.”
In November 2019, the Moon government arrested two North Korean sailors who expressed their intention to defect to South Korea. However, they were repatriated back to the North five days after their arrest, as they were suspected to have killed 16 fellow crewmembers on a fishing boat. At the time, the government explained that it had decided to do so to prevent exposing South Koreans to potential dangers.
This incident, however, became the subject of political debate over the legality of repatriation, with some civic groups and opposition politicians raising suspicions that the administration had decided to do so in order to invite North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to the South Korea-ASEAN summit in Busan that year. Kim did not participate the summit.
Yoon's comments are interpreted that his administration may review documentation related to the sailors' defection and investigative authorities' reports on the case.
People Power Party floor leader Kweon Seong-dong, center, speaks during a fact-finding meeting of the party's investigative team related to a fisheries official killed by North Korea at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Joint Press Corps
The move is the latest in Yoon's drive to delve into undisclosed records of suspicions raised of the previous Moon administration and find any wrongdoing.
Seoul's rival parties are now locking horns over the death of a South Korean fisheries official, who was killed and incinerated at sea by North Korea in 2020.
Last week, the Coast Guard and the Ministry of National Defense apologized to the bereaved family of the official, Lee Dae-joon, reversing the Moon administration's explanation that Lee had attempted to defect to the North. The presidential office also withdrew Moon administration's legal action against the bereaved family's demand that the office reveal documents related to Lee's death.
The ruling People Power Party (PPP) organized a fact-finding team on Lee's death and held the team's first meeting on Tuesday. The team will also look into the 2019 repatriation case.
“A government official of the country was shot to death by North Korean military and his body was burnt at sea. However, the Moon government defined him as a defector,” PPP floor leader Kweon Seong-dong said during the meeting. “The official was killed twice _ once by the North and second by the Moon government.”
To counter the PPP's attacks, the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) demanded the government to reveal sensitive military information, called “special intelligence (SI),” to reveal the truth, even if doing so involves the country disclosing its spying strategies.
However, Yoon said on Tuesday that revealing SI is “not a simple problem” and that he finds it difficult to accept such a demand.
With the Yoon administration now focusing on reinvestigating suspicions of the Moon administration related to national security and North Korea, watchers said that Yoon's drive to scrutinize such suspicions may expand further into economic, social and cultural areas as well.
“There seems to be a good chance of the current administration expanding its efforts on supposedly draining the previous government's swamp, when you think of the reason why the public voted for Yoon as the president,” political commentator Rhee Jong-hoon said.
“Yoon, the former prosecutor general, rose to power as he underscored the values of justice and fairness. This gives Yoon a justifiable reason to look into any wrongdoing of the previous administration. In doing so, however, Yoon should try not to give orders or certain guidelines for investigation. That will make his drive nothing more than a political vendetta,” he said.