President Yoon Suk-yeol is increasing an inquiry into the extremely politicised case following accusations that his predecessor mishandled the probe to curry favour with North Korea.
Suh Hoon is the primary high official from the presidential workplace of former chief Moon Jae-in to be arrested within the case.
He’s accused of ordering that intelligence reviews be destroyed to hide the killing of fisheries official Lee Dae-jun, who died close to the ocean border separating North and South Korea.
The previous high safety official additionally faces allegations that he manipulated proof to assist the Moon authorities’s controversial declare that the late fisheries official had sought to defect to the North.
Choose Kim Jeong-min of the Seoul Central District Court docket issued an arrest warrant for Suh on Saturday, citing “the seriousness of the crime, the standing of the suspect, and a threat of destroying proof”.
In October ex-defence minister Suh Wook and former coast guard chief Kim Hong-hee had been additionally arrested over the identical case.
President Yoon has been sharply essential of his predecessor’s dovish method in direction of North Korea, accusing Moon of appeasing Pyongyang.
Yoon’s Folks Energy Social gathering on Saturday accused Suh of “failing to guard” and “neglecting” the late fisheries official whereas safety chief.
However the nation’s opposition has lengthy claimed the investigation is “political revenge” in opposition to Moon’s administration.
On Saturday they stated Suh’s arrest was “arduous to know” and they’d “defend the reality and justice” in opposition to Yoon’s “political retaliation”.
Fisheries official Lee was shot useless and set on hearth by North Korean troopers close to the rivals’ sea border.
Moon’s authorities on the time stated an preliminary probe by the coast guard urged Lee had tried to defect to the North, citing household issues and money owed from playing.
However Lee’s brother has repeatedly slammed that concept, saying Lee would by no means have chosen a life in North Korea.
Yoon has additionally reopened inquiries into one other explosive homicide case through which two North Korean fishermen who confessed to killing 16 crewmates at sea had been deported again to Pyongyang in 2019.
Rights teams have stated the switch of the suspects again to the North was a violation of worldwide legislation due to the chance of the lads being tortured or worse.
As president, Moon championed engagement with Pyongyang, assembly North Korea’s chief Kim Jong Un and then-US president Donald Trump for talks.
However his diplomacy in the end failed, with the North now extra belligerent than ever.