South Korea's main intelligence agency said on Wednesday it had filed criminal complaints against two of its former chiefs on charges of abuse of power in cases linked to North Korea during the previous administration.

The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it filed the complaints with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, accusing Suh Hoon and Park Jie-won, who led the agency under the liberal Moon Jae-in government, of ordering an investigation to end and destroying intelligence documents, respectively.

Suh's case involved a 2019 decision to deport two North Korean fishermen suspected of murdering 16 of their shipmates.