Sewol Special Investigation Committee: "Park Geun-hye Blue House Conducted Comprehensive Surveillance of Bereaved Families' TV Viewing and More"…Request for Prosecutorial Investigation of 71 Including Kim Ki-chun

Former Presidential Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun, who was prosecuted for manipulating the way the Sewol ferry disaster was reported to former President Park Geun-hye and submitting it to the National Assembly, is heading to the courtroom to attend the appellate trial held at the Seoul High Court in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of December 16 last year.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Dong-hoon] The Special Investigation Commission on Social Disasters (SICSD) revealed that during the Sewol Ferry disaster, the Blue House and the Defense Security Command (Gimusa) conducted all-encompassing surveillance, even monitoring the TV viewing content of the bereaved families. The SICSD decided to request prosecution investigations into 71 individuals, including former Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun and other Blue House and Ministry of National Defense officials at the time.

On the 8th, at a press conference held at Post Tower in Jung-gu, Seoul, the SICSD stated, "Instead of protecting the bereaved families, who should have been safeguarded by public officials responsible for guaranteeing the people's freedom and fundamental rights, their personal and sensitive information, arbitrarily classified political orientations, and various related intelligence were indiscriminately surveilled."

According to the actual contents of the 'Key Instructions and Reports between the Defense Security Command and Subordinate Units,' political orientations of members of the Families Countermeasure Committee, including those affiliated with Noh Sa-mo, criticism of the president on Facebook, TV viewing habits, nighttime drinking behavior, and even incidents of irritability were monitored, including details from the Jindo indoor gymnasium. Furthermore, there is evidence that personal information such as copies of bankbooks and resident registration card photos of the Sewol Ferry bereaved families were also surveilled.

Accordingly, the SICSD decided to request prosecution investigations into 71 individuals affiliated with the Blue House, Ministry of National Defense, and Defense Security Command suspected of participating in the surveillance of the bereaved families.

According to the SICSD investigation results, five Blue House and Ministry of National Defense officials, including then-Chief of Staff Kim Ki-chun, former National Security Office Chiefs Kim Jang-soo and Kim Kwan-jin, former Security Office Chief Park Heung-ryeol, and former Minister of National Defense Han Min-goo, are suspected of ordering and receiving reports on the surveillance of the Sewol Ferry bereaved families by the Defense Security Command, facing charges of abuse of authority, obstruction of rights, and interference with official duties.

Sixty-six members of the Defense Security Command's leadership and field operatives are also expected to be reported to the prosecution on charges of conspiring to conduct civilian surveillance. Among them, six individuals were already indicted by the prosecution in 2018.

According to the SICSD, the Defense Security Command leadership was aware that civilian surveillance was illegal and unrelated to their duties but still instructed unit members of the 610th Unit (Gwangju·Jeonnam) and the 310th Unit (Ansan) to collect information on the atmosphere and disruptive behavior of the Sewol Ferry bereaved families, described as 'unusual conduct.' Field operatives monitored the families' activities for six months following the disaster.

The SICSD explained, "The bereaved families have been subjected to various slanders and insults, including the spread of false information," and emphasized, "An investigation is necessary to clarify the clear causal relationship between the surveillance and these damages."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.