A Seoul court is deliberating whether to issue arrest warrants for former defense minister Suh Wook and former Coast Guard commissioner general Kim Hong-hee for their alleged mishandling of the shooting death of a fisheries official by North Korean soldiers in 2020.

The Seoul Central District Court on Friday was slated to begin its review of the prosecution’s request to arrest Suh and Kim at 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., respectively.

Suh, a former defense minister under President Moon Jae-in, is accused of ordering a deletion of classified military intelligence that challenged the then-government's assumption that Lee Dae-jun had attempted to defect to the North, before being killed by North Koreans near the maritime boundary between the two Koreas.

In concluding that the Moon government had intentionally warped facts to conform with its assumption, the Board of Audit and Inspection(BAI) said 60 military intelligence reports were deleted from a government network on Suh's orders.

The former Coast Guard chief is also accused of manipulating evidence to create the impression that the civil servant had attempted to flee to the North.