Two North Korean fishermen interrogated for alleged murder gave partially conflicting testimonies before being repatriated in 2019, South Korea’s unification minister suggested Friday, contradicting the Moon administration’s initial account.

“We did hear recently that there were some differences” in how the two men recounted the details of the murders to ROK authorities, Kwon Young-se said at a press briefing. But he said these differences were not reflected in the unification ministry’s documentation of the case at the time.

South Korean media reportson Thursday cited an unnamed government official as stating that “while the testimonies that they killed the