Chung Eui-yong calls for prison sentence for leaking THAAD secrets: “Political retaliation by North Korean government”

Issue a statement and publicly protest… “I feel humiliated by being interrogated like a serious criminal.”

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Young-seup = Former Blue House National Security Office Director Chung Eui-yong, who was sentenced to prison in the first trial on charges of leaking information on ROK-US military operations to the outside world to delay the deployment of THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), publicly protested, saying, "I cannot accept the indictment and sentence."

In a statement distributed through his lawyer on the 11th, former Director Jeong said, "I have never ordered or conspired to leak military secrets as the prosecution claimed."

He criticized, “I think this incident is an extension of political retaliation against the previous government’s foreign and security policies, which has been repeated following the ‘East Sea North Korean felon expulsion incident’ and the ‘West Sea civil servant assassination incident’ since the inauguration of the Yoon Seok-yeol administration.”

He continued, "On May 29, 2020, about 50 vehicles, including about 30 large trucks, were mobilized for the operation to transport THAAD equipment and had to pass through civilian residential areas. Residents and members of opposition groups monitored the access road to the base 24 hours a day, making it difficult to keep the large-scale equipment transport completely secret until the last moment."

Former Director Chung Eui-yong said, “Under these conditions, limited prior communication for the safety of residents was necessary for the successful execution of the operation,” adding, “The information delivered just before the operation through the local liaison officer was much briefer than what was notified to the media and the National Assembly.”

He expressed his anger, saying, "The purpose, content, and legal nature of limited prior information for the safety of residents and illegal disclosure of military secrets are clearly different. As a person who has worked in public office all my life for national security and diplomacy, I felt a deep sense of humiliation as I was summoned by the Board of Audit and Inspection and the Prosecutor's Office and interrogated as if I had committed a serious crime."

“Even if we go back to May 29, 2020, I think we would have had no choice but to take the same measures to successfully carry out military missions and protect the safety of residents under the same circumstances,” he said. “The Moon Jae-in administration did not interfere with the deployment of THAAD, but rather respected the decision of the previous government and completed the deployment.”

After mentioning that the Moon Jae-in administration had successfully achieved three inter-Korean and North American summits, former Director Jeong also lamented, "It is very regrettable that the golden opportunity to lay the foundation for permanent peace on the Korean Peninsula was missed due to the U.S.'s wrong judgment at the time and North Korea's inexperienced negotiation skills."

Former Chief of Staff Jeong, along with former Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo, was put on trial on charges of ordering the head of the Regional Cooperation Unit of the Ministry of National Defense to inform anti-THAAD information on the strategic weapons import operation, which is a level 2 military secret, to an anti-THAAD group in May 2020.

The Public Prosecution Office previously requested 10 months in prison for former Director Jeong at a decision hearing held by the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Agreement Division 27 (Chief Judge Woo In-seong).

The first trial will be sentenced on December 21st.

This case was included in the investigation of the so-called ‘Special Prosecutors’ Act on Manipulated Indictments’, which passed the National Assembly on the 6th of this month and investigates suspicions of fabricated indictments by prosecutors under the Yoon Seok-yeol government.