13 People Including Song Cheol-ho Face Trial Over 'Election Interference'... Baek Won-woo and Park Hyung-chul Also Newly Indicted (Comprehensive Report 2)

[Asia Economy Reporters Song Seung-yoon and Lee Jung-yoon] On the 29th, the prosecution investigating allegations of political investigation and election interference by the Blue House collectively indicted 13 individuals involved in the case, including Song Cheol-ho, Mayor of Ulsan, and Song Byung-gi, Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Ulsan. Former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Baek Won-woo and former Anti-Corruption Secretary Park Hyung-chul were also indicted on the same day regarding allegations of election interference as well as the suspicion of 'covering up inspection' related to former Deputy Mayor for Economic Affairs of Busan Yoo Jae-soo.

The Public Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Tae-eun) announced that they had non-detained indicted 13 people including Mayor Song, former Deputy Mayor Song, former Ulsan Police Chief Hwang Un-ha, former Secretary Baek, former Secretary Park, and former Senior Secretary for Political Affairs Han Byung-do on charges including violation of the Public Official Election Act. Former Senior Administrative Officer Jang Hwan-seok of the Balanced Development Secretariat, former Administrative Officer Moon of the Civil Affairs Secretariat, and Political Affairs Special Advisor Jeong of Ulsan City were also indicted together.

The prosecution stated that they plan to sequentially complete investigations on other related individuals besides those indicted without detention on this day.

The investigation team reportedly reported to Lee Sung-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, on the previous day regarding the direction of judicial processing for those involved in this case and proposed several options concerning detailed disposition for each suspect. Initially, since some suspects had not yet undergone face-to-face investigations, options such as postponing indictment until after such investigations or indicting all related individuals at once based on already secured evidence without further investigation were discussed, but the prosecution settled on indicting all related individuals at once.

On this day, Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol held a meeting with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office leadership, including Lee Sung-yoon, Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Shin Bong-soo, 3rd Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and Kim Tae-eun, Head of the Public Investigation Division 2, and made a sudden decision to indict these individuals.

During the meeting, Chief Prosecutor Lee proposed entrusting the decision on whether to indict to a professional investigative advisory group, but this was not accepted. Lee is also reported to have insisted on deciding on the handling of former Chief Hwang's custody after a summons investigation. On the other hand, Prosecutor General Yoon and other executives expressed the opinion that there was sufficient legal basis for indictment and that prompt indictment was inevitable for the fair management of the April general election. The Supreme Prosecutors' Office reportedly recorded all individual opinions of attendees in the meeting minutes, with Chief Prosecutor Lee's opinion noted as a 'dissent.'

The prosecution applied charges of violating the Public Official Election Act to most of those indicted on this day. The prosecution first judged that Mayor Song requested former Police Chief Hwang, who was then the Ulsan Police Chief in September 2017, to investigate former Ulsan Mayor Kim Ki-hyun, and that former Deputy Mayor Song passed on misconduct information related to former Mayor Kim to Administrative Officer Moon. Mayor Song and Deputy Mayor Song are also charged with requesting former Senior Administrative Officer Jang in October of the same year to delay the announcement of the preliminary feasibility study for the 'Industrial Accident Hospital,' a key campaign pledge of former Mayor Kim. Former Senior Administrative Officer Jang accepted this request and provided internal information related to the Industrial Accident Hospital, which the prosecution judged to be a violation of the Public Official Election Act.

The prosecution concluded that former Police Chief Hwang conducted an actual investigation related to former Mayor Kim through the so-called 'political investigation' and that it influenced the election. They also applied charges of abuse of authority for unfair personnel actions against police officers who did not actively pursue investigations around former Mayor Kim.

Former Secretary Baek is believed by the prosecution to have facilitated the political investigation by delivering intelligence documents on former Mayor Kim's corruption suspicions to the police through former Secretary Park.

Separately, both were non-detained indicted on the same day by the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of exercise of rights related to the cover-up of inspection allegations involving former Deputy Mayor Yoo. The prosecution judged that former Secretary Baek and former Secretary Park were accomplices with former Minister of Justice Cho Kuk, who was indicted earlier, in the suspension of the inspection into former Deputy Mayor Yoo's misconduct allegations.

The prosecution explained, "As a result of investigating the cover-up of inspection in the Yoo Jae-soo case by former Senior Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk, it was found that besides Cho Kuk, who has already been indicted on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of exercise of rights, former Secretary Baek and former Secretary Park are also recognized as accomplices." The prosecution added that they requested the court to consolidate this case with the case against former Minister Cho. They decided to apply to the court for consolidation of this indictment with Cho Kuk's abuse of authority and obstruction of exercise of rights case.

Former Senior Secretary Han is accused of urging former Democratic Party Supreme Council member Im Dong-ho, who was a rival in the party primary for Mayor Song in February 2018, to withdraw from the primary and offering a public office position in return. Former Chief of Staff Im, scheduled for prosecution investigation on the 30th, is also suspected of being involved in this charge.

The prosecution also detected that from August 2017 to April 2018, the Mayor Song campaign received internal documents from Ulsan City Hall via email and mail, which were used for establishing election pledges and TV debate materials, and applied charges of violating the Public Official Election Act to Deputy Mayor Song, Kim, and four other Ulsan city officials. Political Affairs Special Advisor Jeong of Ulsan City was non-detained indicted on charges of obstruction of official duties by deception for leaking interview questions for public official recruitment after the 2018 local elections.

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