At the beginning of the Moon Jae-in administration, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutor’s Office, which was in charge of the investigation, is paying attention as the investigation into the so-called ‘blacklist’ allegation that there was extensive pressure to resign as the head of a public institution is underway. The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office is expanding the scope of its investigation to a total of five government departments, starting with a raid on the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and eight public institutions under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy in connection with the recent ‘Ministry of Industry blacklist’ case. With the background that the prosecution brought up the blacklist case immediately following the election, which the prosecution received the accusation three years ago, attention is focused on the direction of the prosecution’s investigation aimed directly at the current government.
According to the coverage of the Hankook Ilbo on the 31st, the investigation in all directions by the government department is in charge of the 6th Criminal Division (Chief Hyungwon Choi) of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office.
The starting point is the case of the blacklist of the Ministry of Industry. In January 2019, the Liberty Korea Party (currently People’s Power) accused former Minister Baek Un-gyu of abuse of power, saying that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy coerced eight heads of public institutions under the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy to resign during their tenure in January 2019. The investigation team seized and searched the Ministry of Industry on the 25th, and on the 28th, 4 subsidiaries of KEPCO (South-East Power, South-East Power, Western Power, Korea Midland Power) and 4 public institutions where the head of the Ministry of Industry was the president during the Lee Myung-bak administration (Korea Mining and Mining Corporation of Korea). Korea Trade Insurance Corporation, Korea Energy Corporation, Korea District Heating Corporation) were simultaneously seized and searched.
The investigation into the blacklist allegation has also been expanded to the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and ICT, the Ministry of Unification, and the Office of Government Policy Coordination. Again, on suspicion that the relevant ministries pressured the heads of agencies under the current government to resign in the early days of the current government, the Liberty Korea Party announced that in March 2019, Deputy Prime Minister Hong Nam-ki (former head of the Office of Government Policy Coordination), Kyung-kyung Kyung-ryung, Chairman of the Economics, Humanities and Social Research Society, and Yoo Young-min, Chief of the Office of the President’s Secretariat (former Minister of Science and Technology) ), etc., were charged with abuse of power and obstruction of exercise of rights.
As the prosecution’s investigation is accelerating, testimonies of former agency heads are also pouring in. Sohn Ki-woong, former director of the Institute for National Unification, who resigned with regarding two years and two months remaining in office, said to the Hankook Ilbo, “At that time, an official from the Economics, Humanities and Social Sciences Research Association notified me by phone that he would resign.” did. Another former head of the national research institute said, “If there were any illegal things (in the personnel process), wouldn’t there be punishment?”
The Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office is also conducting a fact-finding investigation into the fact that the complaint filed by Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon (deputy director of the Judicial Research and Training Institute) once morest former Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae was rejected during the civil complaint process. Prosecutor Han filed a complaint with the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office in September of last year on charges of leaking official secrets, violating the Communications Secret Protection Act, and defamation under the Information and Communications Network Act, saying that former Minister Chu illegally leaked inspection data and spread false facts while he was in office. It didn’t happen. Prosecutor Han filed a complaint with the High Commissioner’s Crime Investigation Office (Public Investigation Office), and the case was then assigned to the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency through the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and the National Police Agency.
An official from the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office said, “It seems that the reception staff judged that the contents of the accusation included matters under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Airborne Service and instructed (to a prosecutor) to file a complaint with the Airborne Division.” We are verifying the exact facts,” he said.
Jaehyun Kim reporter k-jeahyun@hankookilbo.com
Na Kwang-hyun reporter name@hankookilbo.com
