South Korea yesterday arrested a former national security head on suspicion of covering up events surrounding the 2020 murder of a fisheries official by Pyongyang.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol is expanding an inquiry into the highly politicized case following accusations that his predecessor mishandled the probe to curry favor with North Korea.
Former South Korean national security office director Suh Hoon is the first top official from the Cabinet of former South Korean president Moon Jae-in to be arrested over the case.
Photo: AP
He is accused of ordering that intelligence reports be destroyed to conceal the killing of fisheries official Lee Dae-jun, who died near the sea border separating North and South Korea.
The former top security official also faces allegations that he manipulated evidence to support the Moon government’s controversial claim that the late fisheries official had sought to defect to North Korea.
Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jeong-min issued an arrest warrant for Suh yesterday, citing “the seriousness of the crime, the status of the suspect and a risk of destroying evidence.”
In October, former South Korean minister of national defense Suh Wook and former Coast Guard commissioner general Kim Hong-hee were also arrested over the same case.
Yoon has been sharply critical of his predecessor’s dovish approach toward North Korea, accusing Moon of appeasing Pyongyang.
Yoon’s People Power Party yesterday accused Suh of “failing to protect” and “neglecting” the late fisheries official while security director.
The country’s opposition has long claimed the investigation is “political revenge” against Moon’s administration.
Yesterday, they said Suh’s arrest was “hard to understand” and they would “defend the truth and justice” against Yoon’s “political retaliation.”
Lee was shot dead and set on fire by North Korean soldiers near the rivals’ sea border.
Moon’s government at the time said an initial probe by the coast guard suggested that Lee had tried to defect to North Korea, citing family problems and debts from gambling.
Lee’s brother has repeatedly slammed that idea, saying Lee would never have chosen a life in North Korea.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique