With the appeal deadline looming over the "West Sea civil servant shooting," in which all defendants were acquitted at trial, prosecutors have yet to decide whether to appeal. As President Lee Jae-myung and the ruling party publicly press for dropping the appeal, some say internal backlash could erupt again if prosecutors actually forgo an appeal, as happened when they dropped the appeal in the Daejang-dong development scandal in Nov. last year.
According to legal sources on the 2nd, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office has not yet finalized whether to appeal the not-guilty verdicts handed down on the 26th of last month for five people indicted on charges including abuse of authority: former Office of National Security chief Suh Hoon; former Ministry of National Defense Minister Suh Wook; Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Park Ji-won (former National Intelligence Service director); former Korea Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee; and former National Intelligence Service (NIS) chief of staff Noh Eun-chae.
The investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office is said to have conveyed its view immediately after the acquittals that an appeal is necessary to Seoul Central District Prosecutor Park Cheol-woo. Inside the office, given the gravity of the case and its social impact, there is a hope that a conclusion will be reached within working hours on this appeal deadline day.
However, the leadership is reportedly still deliberating whether to appeal. The appeal deadline is at midnight today; if prosecutors do not appeal, the acquittals will stand as final.
Analysts say government pressure has weighed heavily on prosecutors' inability to decide by today's appeal deadline. In fact, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok publicly urged prosecutors to drop the appeal at a Cabinet meeting on the 30th of last month.
At the time, the prime minister called the first-trial ruling "virtually a fabricated indictment by prosecutors," and said, "Isn't it only natural for prosecutors to give up the appeal?" He also told Ministry of Justice Minister Jung Sung-ho, "Isn't an inspection or a review needed into whether the prosecutors who handled the case acted properly?" President Lee Jae-myung then said, "They indicted on a strange logic and ended up with acquittals," adding, "Something should be done to hold someone accountable or to check what happened."
Minister Jung replied, "In any form, there should be a thorough fact-finding inquiry into the past abuse of prosecutorial power." Some suggest that for this reason, the minister could personally direct dropping the appeal. Since taking office, Jung has directed dropping appeals in cases including damages suits against the state and the YTN privatization approval revocation case.
The bereaved families, by contrast, say prosecutors must appeal. On the 31st of last month, they said in a statement that "an appeal must lead to fact-finding and a responsible judgment."
Lee Rae-jin, the elder brother of the late Lee Dae-jun, plans to deliver a letter to U.S. President Donald Trump through the U.S. Embassy in Korea today. In the letter, the family said, "This case is not merely a domestic political issue, but a grave human rights matter that asks how the state treated the life and dignity of its own citizen."
The problem is that if prosecutors do not appeal, infighting could recur as it did during the decision to drop the Daejang-dong appeal in Nov. last year. In the aftermath then, Acting Prosecutor General Noh Man-seok and Seoul Central District Prosecutor Jeong Jin-woo resigned, and from front-line prosecutors to chief prosecutors, those who pushed back were reassigned in droves.
Meanwhile, the West Sea civil servant shooting refers to the Sept. 2020 killing of a Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official surnamed Lee by North Korean soldiers in waters near Small Yeonpyeong Island in Ongjin County, Incheon. Prosecutors at the time alleged that the Moon Jae-in administration's security line downplayed and concealed Lee's shooting. They indicted former Deputy Minister Suh Hoon and others on charges including abuse of authority, but the court said "the evidence is insufficient" and acquitted them.