Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) Chair Choe Jae-hae, center, arrives for work at the BAI headquarters in Seoul on Oct. 14. Yonhap

The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Friday slammed the state auditor for becoming a "pawn" of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, a day after the institution referred former officials in the previous administration to prosecutors over the killing of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea in 2020.

Following a two-month inspection into the Moon Jae-in government's handling of the official's death near the Yellow Sea border, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) requested the prosecution investigate 20 people on charges that include power abuse and document forgery.

The list reportedly includes top security officials of the Moon administration, such as former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon, former National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won and former Defense Minister Suh Wook.

The DPK, which has criticized the inspections for being politically motivated, accused the state auditor for compromising its independence and neutrality to support the conservative Yoon administration.