This case has been going through the legal process for many years, but it looks like it could end soon with jail sentence:s:

This combination of file photos shows (from L to R) former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won, former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon and former Defense Minister Suh Wook. (Yonhap)

 Prosecutors on Wednesday sought a four-year prison term for former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon and a two-year term for former National Intelligence Service (NIS) Director Park Jie-won over the alleged cover-up of the 2020 killing of a South Korean fisheries official at North Korea’s hands.

The sentencing requests were made during the final court hearing at the Seoul Central District Court, wrapping up a trial that began some three years ago with the indictments of five officials of former President Moon Jae-in’s administration, including Suh Hoon and former Defense Minister Suh Wook.

The fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, was fatally shot by North Korean soldiers near the de facto maritime border in the Yellow Sea on Sept. 22, 2020, a day after going missing while on duty on board a fishery inspection vessel. His body was burned by the North.

The Moon administration announced Lee sought to defect to the North in what prosecutors believe was an attempt to prevent the incident from hampering inter-Korean relations.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

The question becomes will people believe the testimony from someone was an incentive to lie since he is cooperating with the prosecution?:

Han Dong-hoon, the former leader of the People Power Party, said Monday evening he was “grief-stricken and devastated” by courtroom testimony that former President Yoon Suk Yeol wanted him shot and killed.

The remark was part of testimony by former Army Special Warfare Commander Kwak Jong-keun, who told the court that Yoon instructed him on Oct. 1, 2024, to arrest Han and other political figures, saying, “I’ll have him shot to death if I have to.”

Han had been a longtime colleague and confidant to Yoon. He joined then-President Yoon’s Cabinet in May 2022 as justice minister, before later taking over as leader of the then-ruling party in December 2023.

Kwak testified Monday in Yoon’s criminal trial for charges of insurrection and power abuse, related to his imposition of martial law on Dec. 3, 2024. Yoon has denied issuing any such orders.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link, but Kwak claims the martial law order was issued on October 1st. If that this the case how was the martial law order executed so poorly with over two months to plan for it?

North Korea was trying to send a message to the U.S. Secretary of War before his JSA visit:

North Korea fired around 10 artillery shells from its multiple rocket launcher system earlier this week, coinciding with a joint visit by the defense chiefs of South Korea and the United States to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) separating the two Koreas, the South’s military said Tuesday.

The North launched the rockets toward waters off the northern Yellow Sea at around 4 p.m. Monday, the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) said, adding an analysis of the weapons test is under way.

The launch came less than an hour before U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth arrived at Camp Bonifas, just south of the Joint Security Area (JSA) within the DMZ, for a joint visit to the tense border with Defense Minister Ahn Gyu-back.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

It looks like post-Freedom Shield is when there may be some movement on dialogue between the U.S. and North Korea if you belive the NIS:

The state intelligence agency has detected signs that North Korea had been preparing for a possible summit with the United States around the time of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) gathering in South Korea, although the meeting did not take place, officials said Tuesday.

The agency also said there is high possibility of a summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un some time after a regular South Korea-U.S. military drill in March.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This doesn’t make me feel any better because is Xi telegraphing he plans to invade Taiwan after Trump is out of office?:

President Donald Trump says that Chinese President Xi Jinping has given him assurances that Beijing would take no action toward its long-stated goal of unifying Taiwan with mainland China while the Republican leader is in office. Trump said that the long-contentious issue of Taiwan did not come up in his talks with Xi on Thursday in South Korea that largely focused on U.S.-China trade tensions.

But the U.S. leader expressed certainty that China would not take action on Taiwan, while he’s in office. “He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in an excerpt of an interview with the CBS’ program “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link.