SEOUL-- Prosecutors raided the Presidential Archives on Thursday as part of an investigation into the previous administration's handling of the death of a fisheries official at the hands of North Korea in 2020.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office sent a team of prosecutors and investigators to the Presidential Archives in the central city of Sejong in the morning to seize related materials.

Prosecutors have been investigating the allegations that high-level officials under the Moon Jae-in administration deleted or fabricated intelligence reports related to the death of the fisheries official, Lee Dae-jun, to depict Lee as having been attempting to defect to North Korea.

The Thursday raid reportedly focused on documents pertaining to Cheong Wa Dae's decision-making process surrounding the case.

As part of the probe, last month prosecutors raided the houses of three top national security officials who served under Moon -- former National Intelligence Service Director Park Jie-won, former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon and former Defense Minister Suh Wook.

The case is being revisited under President Yoon Suk-yeol who took office in May after the Coast Guard overturned its earlier conclusion that the 47-year-old official was killed while attempting to defect the North and said it found no concrete evidence backing the prior announcement.

The search follows prosecutors' multiple raids of the Presidential Archives in connection with separate allegations that the Moon administration deported two North Korean fishermen to the North in November 2019 against their will to defect to the South after prematurely terminating an investigation into them.

After analyzing seized materials, prosecutors are expected to summon key suspects in the two cases for questioning down the road.

Source: Yonhap News Agency