A court has convicted former security and intelligence chiefs from the Moon Jae-in administration of abusing their power and obstructing others from exercising their rights in connection with the forced repatriation of two North Korean fishermen in 2019, but has suspended the pronouncement of their punishment.

The Seoul Central District Court on Wednesday found former national security adviser Chung Eui-yong and former National Intelligence Service Director Suh Hoon guilty of the charges, but suspended the pronouncement of their ten-month prison terms.

A suspension of pronouncement of punishment, granted when an offense is deemed minor, means the sentencing is postponed for a certain period and if the period passes without any problems, the person is considered acquitted. 

Former presidential chief of staff Noh Young-min and former unification minister Kim Yeon-chul were sentenced to six months in prison on the same charges, with the pronouncement of their sentences also suspended.

The court said the former officials decided to repatriate the North Koreans just two days after their arrest and sent them back to the North within five days, solely based on their confessions to having killed fellow fishermen, in the absence of a careful legal review.

The court, however, took into account the fact that legal guidelines for such cases were lacking amid cross-border confrontations following the division of the two Koreas.

The former officials were indicted without pretrial detention in February 2023 on suspicion of ordering the forcible repatriation of the two North Koreans in 2019 amid allegations that the North Koreans murdered 16 fellow sailors.