ANKARA

South Korea’s former intelligence chief has accused President Yoon Suk-yeol of being behind investigations launched into the conduct of two former spy chiefs, local media reported on Wednesday.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) last month filed complaints against Park Jie-won and Suh Hoon, two former directors of the agency under ex-President Moon Jae-in’s administration, for abuse of power in cases linked to North Korea.

They are accused of mishandling the killing of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea in 2020 and the 2019 repatriation of two North Korean fishermen, Yonhap News Agency reported.

Park told a local radio station that President Yoon’s office “made the planning and ordered it, the NIS filed complaints, and the prosecution is investigating,” the report said.

He asserted that investigators “will find no wrongdoing whatsoever,” it added. 

Yoon, who took over from Moon this May, told reporters last month that the investigations must “be carried out in accordance with the constitution and laws.”

In November 2019, two North Korean fishermen were caught in the East Sea and confessed to killing 16 of their fellow crew members in a bid to defect to South Korea.

They were, however, handed back to Pyongyang as Moon’s government “deemed their intentions to be insincere,” according to a previous Yonhap report.  

* Writing by Islamuddin Sajid