Prosecutors Drop Appeal in West Sea Civilian Official Shooting Case Involving Suh Hoon and Kim Hong-hee, Citing Low Chance of Reversal

[Financial News] Prosecutors have decided not to appeal the case involving the West Sea civilian official shooting incident, in which Suh Hoon, former National Security Director at the Blue House, and Kim Hong-hee, former Commissioner General of the Korea Coast Guard, were indicted on charges including abuse of power and were acquitted again on appeal.
The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office said in a notice to the press on the 23rd that it had carefully reviewed the likelihood of the second-instance ruling in the West Sea civilian official shooting incident being accepted on appeal, and, after consulting with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office of the Republic of Korea (SPO), decided not to file an appeal.
As a result, the not-guilty verdicts for Suh and Kim were finalized.
The West Sea civilian official shooting incident refers to the case in which Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries official Daejun Lee went missing in the West Sea in September 2020 and was later shot dead by North Korean troops.
Suh and Kim were brought to trial on charges including drawing up and using false official documents and damaging the reputation of Lee's bereaved family while the government was emphasizing the possibility that he had voluntarily defected to North Korea.
On the 16th, the Seoul High Court also found Suh and Kim not guilty, just as the lower court had.
The bench said that among the Coast Guard's first, second and third investigative findings, the parts concerning the possibility of voluntary defection were based on the investigative authorities' judgment or assessment using the materials available at the time, making it difficult to conclude that they were false.
Earlier, the trial court also acquitted all five defendants, including former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won, in January. Prosecutors did not appeal Park and the others, but they did appeal Suh and Kim, saying there was room to dispute some legal interpretations.
At the time, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office explained, "We filed an appeal over the parts that announced investigative results that could be mistaken as indicating voluntary defection, even though the possibility of defection to North Korea was unclear, and that damaged the reputations of the deceased and the bereaved family."
However, the appeals court reached the same conclusion as the trial court, and prosecutors appear to have judged that the ruling was unlikely to be overturned at the Supreme Court level.
By contrast, the bereaved family had been urging prosecutors to appeal.
Lee Rae-jin, the deceased's older brother, held a news conference at the National Assembly on the day and argued, "This is a serious case involving the people's lives and the state's responsibility. Prosecutors must seek a final judicial ruling through an appeal and continue pursuing the truth to the end."
Lee also mentioned the possibility of raising the issue through international organizations such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Maritime Organization (IMO).
 
scottchoi15@fnnews.com Choi Eun-sol Reporter