SEOUL– The prosecution on Friday launched a probe into allegations that a high-ranking prosecutor requested the main opposition party file complaints against pro-government figures ahead of the parliamentary elections last year.
An online news outlet reported Thursday that Son Jun-sung, then top investigation intelligence official of the Supreme Prosecutors Office (SPO), provided the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) with two complaints targeting three figures close to the Moon Jae-in administration as well as seven journalists before the April 2020 elections.
Son was a key aide to Yoon Seok-youl, then prosecutor general and now the PPP’s leading presidential contender.
Prosecution sources said an SPO inspection team secured the computers used by Son to search for related documents.
If necessary, the inspectors will interview Son in person and seek to look into his mobile phone and laptop computers, according to the sources.
The internal probe was ordered by Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo on Thursday in response to the report by Newsverse, an internet-only news company.
The report said Son delivered the documents to Kim Woong, a former prosecutor and then a PPP parliamentary candidate, on two occasions. Kim allegedly relayed them to the party’s legal officials, but the party did not lodge the complaints.
Newsverse published photos of the alleged complaints, which accused the ruling bloc figures and reporters of spreading “false” allegations that Yoon’s wife was implicated in stock manipulation and that a TV reporter blackmailed an inmate to tip him off about corruption involving a pro-government commentator, leveraging his close ties with another close Yoon aide.
Son, now working at the prosecution office in the southeastern city of Daegu, and Kim, now a PPP lawmaker working in Yoon’s rival camp in the PPP primary, denied the report.
The allegation is fast escalating into a key source of political contention.
Song Young-gil, the chief of the ruling Democratic Party (DP), called the incident a political machination and unprecedented disruption to the state order.
DP members, including Lee Jae-myung, its presidential front-runner, proposed to push for a special parliamentary inquiry or a probe by the new Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials.
They raised suspicion that Yoon may have ordered Son to make the request in a bid to undermine voter support for the ruling party ahead of the crucial elections.
Yoon was at odds with members of the Moon administration and the ruling party before he resigned as chief prosecutor in March.
Yoon flatly denied the allegation, calling it power-media collusion and an absurd fabrication by the ruling bloc. His supporters in the party described the report as fake news.
PPP chief Lee Jun-seok, who has been feuding with Yoon over party primary procedures, and Yoon’s competitors in the race urged him to clarify his position over the suspicion. Lee even mentioned the need for the party’s own inspection.
Source: Yonhap News Agency