South Korea’s presidential office condemned the previous government’s decision to repatriate two North Korean fishermen as a “crime against humanity” on Wednesday, a day after newly released photos showed at least one of the men physically resisting their 2019 handover to DPRK authorities.

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration vowed to further investigate the three-year-old case in light of the “shocking” photos, as questions about how and why the government chose to send the fishermen back rapidly snowball into a major political scandal.