'Arrest Warrants Requested for 3 Ministry of Industry Officials Over Obstruction of Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Audit (Comprehensive)'

Allegations of Damage to Public Electronic Records and Violations of the Board of Audit and Inspection Act

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[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] The prosecution has requested arrest warrants for Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy officials involved in the mass deletion of internal data related to the Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant.

The Criminal Division 5 of Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Sang-hyun), investigating allegations of manipulation in the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolseong Unit 1 and related complaints, on the 2nd requested the Daejeon District Court to issue arrest warrants for three ministry officials at the director and section chief level, including Mr. A (53), who are suspected of damaging public electronic records and violating the Board of Audit and Inspection Act.

According to the prosecution, Mr. A and others are suspected of ordering or tacitly allowing the deletion of data related to Wolseong Unit 1 around November last year, just before the Board of Audit and Inspection requested the submission of materials.

In fact, Mr. B, a subordinate of Mr. A, reportedly entered the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy office at the Government Sejong Complex around 11 p.m. the previous day and deleted 444 items of data related to Wolseong Unit 1 for about two hours on the morning of December 2, when a meeting with an auditor from the Board of Audit and Inspection was scheduled, according to the Board of Audit and Inspection and others.

At that time, Mr. B is said to have first modified file names and other details of documents deemed important so that the original content could not be recognized even if restored later, then deleted them, and later, judging that there were too many materials, simply deleted files or removed entire folders.

Mr. B reportedly told the Board of Audit and Inspection, "I thought they might feel uneasy if I told them there were no audit-related materials," and "My superior told me it would be better to delete the materials over the weekend, so I did it late at night in a hurry."

The prosecution investigated Mr. A and others without detention after raiding the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and others last month. However, as there were conflicting statements among suspects regarding the deletion orders and execution process, the prosecution decided to proceed with detention due to concerns over evidence destruction.

Earlier, when the Board of Audit and Inspection demanded on November 26 last year that the ministry submit all internal reports and Blue House consultation materials related to Wolseong Unit 1, the ministry sent only some materials such as litigation trends on November 27?28, excluding documents reported to the Presidential Secretariat. The deletion occurred just three or four days after that.

This suggests that the ministry itself attempted to conceal communication evidence with higher authorities such as the Blue House, and the prosecution is deemed necessary to verify the circumstances.

The decision on whether to issue the arrest warrants is expected to be made tomorrow.

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