Prosecution Requests Arrest Warrant for Former Minister Baek Woon-gyu on Charges of Economic Manipulation of Wolseong Unit 1

Former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-kyu / Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The prosecution investigating allegations of manipulation in the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolsong Nuclear Power Plant Unit 1 has requested an arrest warrant for former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-kyu.

On the 4th, the Criminal Division 5 of Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Lee Sang-hyun) announced that it had requested a pre-arrest warrant for former Minister Baek on charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of business.

Former Minister Baek is accused of interfering with the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit by manipulating the economic feasibility evaluation conducted by Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) and deleting related documents prior to the shutdown of Wolsong Unit 1 (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 employee in charge of nuclear policy at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy reported a plan to temporarily maintain the operation of Wolsong Unit 1, Baek reprimanded them, saying, "Review it to immediately stop the operation." Subsequently, a policy was established to "immediately stop operation simultaneously with KHNP's board decision for early shutdown of the nuclear power plant."

The prosecution has been investigating on the premise that the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolsong Unit 1 was manipulated according to this policy.

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

In this regard, the Daejeon District Prosecutors' Office indicted two Ministry officials last December on charges of deleting documents related to the shutdown of Wolsong Unit 1 (damage to public electronic records, violation of the Board of Audit and Inspection Act, and trespassing), and indicted one other official without detention.

It is known that former Minister Baek denied most of his charges during the prosecution investigation on the 25th of last month.

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