Desperate cry for truth

By Park Yoon-bae

A government has no reason to exist if it neglects or fails to protect people's lives and their property. A case in point could be the previous Moon Jae-in administration's failure to save a fisheries official who was shot to death by the North Korean military in 2020.

To the dismay of the bereaved family and the public, the authorities did little to nothing to come to his rescue for six hours after the South Korean military obtained intelligence that the official was at the mercy of North Korean soldiers.

What's more dumbfounding is that the Moon government had allegedly attempted to cover up its failure by falsely concluding that the 47-year-old official, Lee Dae-jun, was killed while trying to defect to North Korea.

The incident took place in North Korean waters near the inter-Korean maritime border in the West Sea at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 22, 2020, a day after he went missing while on duty aboard a fishery inspection boat.

The tragedy could have been prevented if the authorities had taken urgent and decisive action. Six hours before Lee was shot dead, the South's military noticed through wiretapping that North Korean troops caught him in the sea. And the Ministry of National Defense reported the case to then-President Moon three hours before his death.

Regrettably, however, Moon did nothing to save Lee. He later said that it was difficult to deal with the case properly because the inter-Korean communication line was cut. But his excuse proved wrong as the South, in fact, was able to contact the North through military communication lines managed by the United Nations Command at the truce village of Panmunjeom.

More seriously, the Moon government had tried to shirk its responsibility or downplay the seriousness of the incident by defining the incident as a case of Lee's "voluntary defection."

The Joint Chiefs of Staff said in its first report to Cheong Wa Dae that there was little possibility of Lee attempting to flee to the North. However the presidential office had allegedly forced the defense ministry and the Coast Guard to reach a conclusion that Lee was trying to defect at the time of his death because of his gambling debt. The announced conclusion has now proven false.

Last month, the ministry and the Coast Guard overturned their previous conclusion, saying that there was no evidence proving the defection allegations. They also apologized for causing a misunderstanding with the bereaved family, which has denied such allegations consistently since the incident occurred.

The reversal of the conclusion is belated but welcome. It now offers an opportunity for the nation to reveal the truth behind the case. Yet, it is still difficult to do so because the previous government classified related documents as presidential records that should be kept sealed for 15 years.

There are two ways to declassify the records. One is for the National Assembly to endorse their release. For this, more than two-thirds of lawmakers are required to vote for it. Another method is for a high court to issue a warrant to open the documents.

Yet it is still hard to get access to presidential records about Lee's death because the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), which was the ruling party under Moon's rule, is against making public the documents. (The DPK now holds a majority of 170 seats in the 299-member National Assembly.)

The bereaved family and the ruling People Power Party (PPP) have demanded the DPK help release the document. But, DPK interim leader Rep. Woo Sang-ho rejected the demand, saying that the case came to a close after North Korea apologized for the incident. He argued that whether the victim had the intention to defect or not is not important.

It is absurd for DPK lawmakers to refuse to cooperate in getting to the bottom of the incident. The party should not try to play politics in order to protect Moon and former presidential officials. Instead, it must go beyond partisan politics to shed light on the case.

Turning a deaf ear to the bereaved family's desperate cry for truth is tantamount to "killing the victim twice." The family only wants to know what happened in the incident so that it can restore the honor of the late Lee.

Former President Moon should not try to pass the buck on to others. He faces allegations that he might have been deeply involved in playing down or distorting the incident so as not to antagonize the North amid his engagement policy.

He must feel ashamed if he indeed broke the promise he made in a letter to Lee's son that he would do his best to reveal the truth. The distortion of facts anywhere is a serious crime, and if committed at the level of government, it goes against the basic principles of democracy.

Now the Yoon Suk-yeol administration should do everything it can to lay bare the truth and relieve the pain, frustration and anger of the bereaved family. It also needs to discipline those responsible to prevent a recurrence. Most of all, it should demonstrate why government exists.

The author (byb@koreatimes.co.kr) is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times.