Prosecutors Summon Former Industry Minister Baek Woon-gyu for Alleged Manipulation of Wolseong Nuclear Plant Economic Evaluation... Prosecutors Accelerate Investigation into 'Upper Echelons'

Former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-kyu. / Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] The prosecution investigating allegations of manipulation in the economic feasibility assessment of the Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant summoned former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-kyu for questioning.

With the full-scale operation of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Division and the inauguration of new Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye, the prosecution appears to be accelerating its investigation toward higher-ups in this case.

The Criminal Division 5 of Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Sang-hyun) summoned former Minister Baek on the 25th as a suspect on charges of abuse of authority and conducted an investigation.

Former Minister Baek is accused of manipulating the economic feasibility assessment by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) before the closure of Wolseong Unit 1 and interfering with the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit by being involved in deleting related documents (charges include abuse of authority, damage to public electronic records, and violation of the Board of Audit and Inspection Act).

According to the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit report, in April 2018, when an industrial ministry employee in charge of nuclear policy reported a plan to temporarily maintain the operation of Wolseong Unit 1, former Minister Baek reprimanded them, saying, "Review it to immediately suspend operation," and thereafter, a policy was set to "immediately suspend operation simultaneously with the KHNP board's decision to early close the nuclear plant."

The prosecution has been investigating on the premise that the manipulation of the economic feasibility assessment of Wolseong Unit 1 occurred following the establishment of this policy.

Additionally, the prosecution is investigating the possibility that former Minister Baek was involved in the process of including the early closure of Wolseong Unit 1 in the management performance agreement of the new KHNP president.

Former Minister Baek is also accused of being involved in the deletion of 530 nuclear-related documents by three Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy officials who were previously indicted.

In December of last year, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office indicted two ministry officials on charges of deleting documents related to the closure of Wolseong Unit 1 (damage to public electronic records, violation of the Board of Audit and Inspection Act, and trespassing), detaining them, and indicted one other official without detention, bringing all three to trial.

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