Murder at sea: how did a South Korean fisheries official come to be floating in a life jacket in North Korean waters?
- Was Lee Dae-jun a would-be defector fleeing gambling debts, as the government of then-president Moon Jae-in said, citing intelligence it then sealed for 30 years?
- Or is that a smear campaign and cover-up, as the new government of Yoon Suk-yeol claims in legal action over the former administration’s handling of the case?
When North Korean soldiers found a South Korean fisheries official in their territorial waters, they shot him dead and burned the body – an incident so shocking it later prompted Kim Jong-un to apologise.
Details are sketchy – and mostly classified – but exactly how and why the official came to be floating in a life jacket above the sea border known as the Northern Limit Line in September 2020 has become a bitter political debate in the South.
Was the 47-year-old official, Lee Dae-jun, a would-be defector fleeing gambling debts, as the government of then-president Moon Jae-in said citing intelligence it then sealed for 30 years?
Or is that version of events actually a high-level smear campaign and cover-up, as the new government of Yoon Suk-yeol has claimed in raiding an ex-spy master’s house and launching legal action over the former administration’s handling of the case?
The intelligence services claim that their former chief, Park Jie-won, destroyed evidence showing Lee had no plans to move to Pyongyang.
Park said the charges were “political revenge on the former administration,” dismissing the allegations as unfounded.
