After Prime Minister Kim Min-seok said it was natural for prosecutors to forgo an appeal over the case of the "West Sea public official killing cover-up," in which a not-guilty verdict was recently handed down at the first trial, the bereaved family of the late victim, Lee Dae-jun, said the truth must be uncovered through an appeal.
Attorney Kim Ki-yoon, the family's legal representative, said in a statement on the 31st that the question of what the Moon Jae-in administration did until Lee was shot and burned by North Korean soldiers in the West Sea raised doubts for the family about the existence of the state and its responsibility.
According to Kim, the family in 2021 filed a request for information disclosure against the then head of the Office of National Security at the presidential office. They asked for the actual reports Moon Jae-in received at the time of the incident from the Ministry of National Defense, the Korea Coast Guard, and the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, as well as directive documents to those agencies.
Kim said that on Nov. 12, 2021, the Seoul Administrative Court also ordered all of this material to be disclosed to the family, but the head of the Office of National Security appealed, saying the information would not be provided to the family, adding that the person who appealed was Suh Hoon, who was acquitted this time.
Kim added that the family also won a request for information disclosure against the Korea Coast Guard commissioner at the time, but the commissioner appealed; the person who appealed then was the then Korea Coast Guard commissioner Kim Hong-hee, who was acquitted this time.
Kim said that Suh Hoon and Kim Hong-hee, who were high-ranking public officials, blocked the family's right to seek the truth by appealing, and because of their appeals, the family was denied the truth amid despair and pain. Kim added that when Suh and Kim appealed the family's requests for information disclosure, it is unavoidable to ask what Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, as a lawmaker representing Korea, did for the family.
Kim went on to say that even now, Prime Minister Kim should urge prosecutors to appeal so that the truth can be uncovered and a responsible judgment can be made through criminal proceedings, adding that just as Suh Hoon and Kim Hong-hee appealed the ruling on the family's information disclosure request while turning a blind eye to the family's cries five years ago, this time they too should be made to face an appeal by prosecutors.
Earlier, on the 26th, former presidential Office of National Security chief Suh Hoon and others were acquitted at the first trial in the case of the "West Sea public official killing cover-up." On the 30th, at a Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Kim said, isn't it only natural for the prosecutors who investigated the case to forgo an appeal? It was in response to President Lee Jae-myung's remarks that it makes no sense to create a case out of nothing and hide existing evidence to send someone to prison.