Leaked Lawsuit Details Lead to a Dead End... Ultimately Hangs on Im Sun-young's Words

Suspected Leak Routes Increase to Four Locations

On the morning of the 22nd, Kim Jae-ryeon, lead attorney at Law Firm On-Sesang, spoke at the "2nd Press Conference on the Sexual Violence Case by the Mayor of Seoul" held at an undisclosed location in Seoul./Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporters Seungyoon Song and Jeongyun Lee] The suspicion surrounding how the fact of sexual harassment accusations against the late Park Won-soon, former Mayor of Seoul, was leaked and reached the Seoul city officials is becoming increasingly mysterious. Initially, the leak route was narrowed down to the police and the Blue House, but now the prosecution has also been added. Including civic groups, there are currently four suspected parties. All of them deny the leak. Consequently, all attention is focused on the testimony of Im Sun-young, Seoul City's Gender Special Advisor, who appears to be the first point of contact for the leaked information reaching the Seoul city officials.

The case of the leaked accusation has been assigned to the Criminal Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. The prosecution has not yet decided whether to conduct the investigation directly or to entrust it to the police while only supervising. The investigation is expected to target officials along the reporting line from the Seoul city political affairs team to the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, the National Police Agency, and the Blue House. In particular, the testimony of Special Advisor Im, who was the first in Seoul city to learn of the accusation and confirmed it with former Mayor Park, is expected to be a crucial clue. In a previous interview with a media outlet, Special Advisor Im stated that she heard about an unpleasant matter related to former Mayor Park from outside Seoul city and clarified that it was "not a civic group."

Im Sun-young, Seoul City's Gender Advisor, is leaving Seongbuk Police Station in Seoul after completing an investigation in the early morning of the 21st.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The prosecution, newly pointed out as a leak route, also maintains the position that it "did not leak" the information. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office issued a statement immediately after the victim's side held a press conference on the 22nd, which claimed that "the prosecution knew about the accusation plan and the personal details of the accused before receiving the complaint," stating, "We have not reported this to any higher authority or disclosed it externally." However, it remains unclear whether the fact of former Mayor Park's sexual harassment accusation was reported and shared within the Central District Prosecutors' Office rather than the higher authority, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. Some in the legal community speculate that the information might have been reported up to the level of Deputy Chief Prosecutor and Central District Prosecutor General Lee Seong-yoon.

Attorney Kim Jae-ryeon, who represents the victim, revealed at a press conference on the 22nd that on the 7th, before submitting the complaint to the police, she considered submitting it to the prosecution first. Accordingly, the head of the Women's and Children's Crime Investigation Division at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office was scheduled to meet with Attorney Kim at 3 p.m. on the 8th, but the meeting did not take place. The 3 p.m. time on the 8th is roughly when Special Advisor Im learned about the accusation and approached former Mayor Park, asking, "There are rumors of an unpleasant matter. Did you make a mistake?" It was also about 30 minutes to an hour after the victim's side first contacted the police.

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