Song Kiheon: "Special Activity Fund for the Supreme Prosecutors' Office Must Be Cut... Will Clearly Address It in Budget Review"

Investigation Results on Special Activity Expense Execution: "Suspected Use for Department/Agency Operating Costs, Not Special Investigations"
"Insufficient Data Verification... Need to Reconsider Verification of Periodic Expenses"
"Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae Did Not Record Anything at All"

On the 9th, during the on-site verification of the special activity expenses execution details of the prosecution and the Ministry of Justice by the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Song Ki-heon, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, is entering the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by the National Assembly Press Corps

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] Song Kiheon, a member of the National Assembly's Legislation and Judiciary Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, stated that the prosecution's special activity funds (special activity expenses) should be cut. On the 9th, 13 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties belonging to the Legislation and Judiciary Committee investigated the execution details of special activity expenses by the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and the Ministry of Justice for about three hours at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul.

On the morning of the 10th, Song appeared on MBC Radio and said, "Rather than the special activity expenses being accurately executed for genuine special investigation activities, there are cases where they are used for department or agency operating costs. There is a lot of suspicion about that." He added, "The prosecutors in the prosecution bureau of the Ministry of Justice and those in the Supreme Prosecutors' Office are not positions for special investigation activities. I think this part should be clearly organized during the budget review process." When asked if this meant that the special activity expenses could be cut during the budget review process depending on the situation, he replied, "Yes, I think it will be necessary."

Song pointed out that the Supreme Prosecutors' Office only disclosed about 10 to 20% of the total special activity expenses data.

When asked about reports that Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol had instructed active cooperation but the data was not received, he said, "We have been requesting since 2018, but the Supreme Prosecutors' Office only disclosed data for about four months in 2020 related to regularly paid portions."

When asked, "It is said that the annual size is about 9 billion won, but does that mean you only received 10 to 20% of that?" he replied, "I think it is less than 10 to 20%." He added, "Only a few months' worth was provided, and there are regularly paid and occasionally paid portions. Since only the regularly paid data was provided, it was impossible to verify the details of the occasionally paid special activity expenses."

Regarding suspicions that Minister of Justice Choo Mi-ae also used the special activity expenses, Song emphasized, "Minister Choo did not use them at all."

However, when asked about suspicions that Prosecutor General Yoon was using the special activity expenses at his discretion and whether there was no room for such discretion in the regular portion, he replied, "That is correct."

Meanwhile, when asked if the controversy might not be resolved by yesterday's verification since only a very small portion of the data was seen, Song said, "I don't think the controversy can be resolved by yesterday's verification." He added, "We will have to discuss again regarding the occasionally paid portion."

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