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Suh Hoon, who served as director of the National Security Office under President Moon Jae-in, reads documents during a Cabinet meeting in March at the Blue House. (Yonhap)

Prosecutors investigating the 2020 killing of a South Korean civil servant by North Korean military personnel in the West Sea requested an arrest warrant for former national security advisor Suh Hoon on Tuesday.

As Suh was the top man in former President Moon Jae-in’s core national security team, if prosecutors receive the warrant, they will likely consider whether to call in Moon for questioning as well.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office asked the court for the warrant on Tuesday morning, charging Suh with abuse of power and falsifying documents.

Prosecutors believe that at the time of the killing in late September 2020, Suh issued a directive to the Coast Guard and Defense Ministry ordering them to conclude that the victim was attempting to defect to the North, and that he conspired with the Defense Ministry to write a Joint Chiefs of Staff report asserting that the victim was “likely defecting to North Korea.”

Prosecutors also believe there are signs Suh plotted to delete materials during a ministerial meeting chaired by Moon and attended by Suh, First Deputy Director of the National Security Office Suh Choo-suk, presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min and other officials.

When prosecutors brought Suh in for questioning last Thursday and Friday, they reportedly grilled him about what he reported to Moon, as well as about orders issued by the former president.

Suh is flatly denying the charges, rejecting accusations that either he or Moon ordered the erasing of intelligence materials. Nor did the presidential office secretly conspire to delete materials, he says.

Legal professionals are focusing on why prosecutors filed an arrest warrant against Suh after former Defense Minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard Commissioner General Kim Hong-hee — arguably the former national security advisor’s subordinates — were released after being detained on the same charges.

Many observers think the prosecutors’ investigation had hit a wall, and that they are trying to energize their probe by detaining Suh — the apex of the presidential security team at the time — for questioning.

After President Yoon Suk-yeol assumed office, the government agencies involved in the 2020 case, including the Board of Audit and Inspection, National Intelligence Service, Defense Ministry and Unification Ministry, withdrew their previous conclusions — made under the Moon administration — that the victim of the shooting was “voluntarily defecting to the North,” claiming instead that there was no evidence to suggest the victim was defecting.

This led to an investigation being opened by prosecutors.

The Board of Audit and Inspection even attempted a written investigation of Moon.

Therefore, observers believe an arrest warrant for Suh Hoon constitutes an interim step to ultimately questioning Moon.

Also, of interest is whether the court issues a third arrest warrant related to the case.

Within the legal community, opinion is split on whether prosecutors can criminally punish officials from the previous administration over their analysis and judgments regarding intelligence about North Korea, and the two previous figures detained in the case — Suh Wook and Kim Hong-hee — were later freed.

The former national security advisor is also a very low flight risk, given that he voluntarily returned to Korea ahead of his questioning.

Seoul Central District Court Judge Kim Jeong-min, who heads the court's warrant division, will decide whether to issue the warrant at 10 am on Friday.

A former prosecutor-turned-lawyer said with two other major suspects in the case being released after being detained, “predicting whether the court issues a warrant for Suh isn't easy.”

“If the court recognizes the need to detain Suh, prosecutors will be able to take a breath, but if they throw out the warrant request, the investigation could lose steam with three major suspects released in turn. The success or failure of the prosecutors' investigation going forward depends on the result,” they said.

By Son Hyun-soo, staff reporter

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