Former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon, left, and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee, right, walk out of a courtroom at the Seoul High Court in southern Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap
An appellate court on Tuesday upheld acquittals of a former senior presidential official and a former Coast Guard chief over an alleged cover-up of the 2020 murder of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea.
The Seoul High Court found former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee not guilty on charges of drafting false public documents in connection with the alleged cover-up.
In September 2020, the fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, was fatally shot by North Korean troops near the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea after going missing while on board a fishery inspection ship. His body was later burned by North Korean soldiers.
At the time, then President Moon Jae-in's administration said Lee had sought to defect to the North, but prosecutors have argued the announcement was driven by concerns the incident could worsen inter-Korean relations.
