Red Light for Investigation into 'Kim Hak-ui's Departure'... Park Beom-gye Removes Prosecutor from Probe after PACC's 'Re-referral'

Minister Park rejects extension of prosecutors Im Se-jin and Kim Kyung-mok's dispatch for 'illegal withdrawal' investigation
2 out of 4 prosecutors excluding chief to leave
Prosecutors say "It's an order not to investigate"
Ministry of Justice regulations allow dispatch up to 3 months

Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye. [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin] A red light has been lit on the prosecution investigation related to the travel ban on former Deputy Minister of Justice Kim Hak-ui.

This is because Minister of Justice Park Beom-gye on the 12th refused to approve the extension of the dispatch of two prosecutors who played key roles within the investigation team.

In particular, on the same day, Kim Jin-wook, head of the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Office (Gongu Office), decided to retransfer the case involving Seoul Central District Prosecutor Lee Seong-yoon and Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, who are under investigation related to the travel ban on former Deputy Minister Kim, back to the prosecution. When Minister Park made this decision, voices of dissatisfaction grew within the prosecution, calling it "blatant obstruction of the investigation."

On the 13th, there were reactions within the prosecution expressing that Minister Park's recent action was "unacceptable."

The Suwon District Prosecutors' Office requested the Ministry of Justice to approve the extension of the dispatch of two prosecutors?Im Se-jin, head of the Criminal Division 2 at Pyeongtaek Branch of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, and Kim Gyeong-mok, a prosecutor at Busan District Prosecutors' Office?who were dispatched to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's "Kim Hak-ui Travel Ban Case Investigation Team" (team leader Lee Jeong-seop, head of Criminal Division 3), following Kim, head of the Gongu Office, deciding to retransfer the case to the prosecution considering that Gongu Office prosecutors have not yet been appointed.

According to the Ministry of Justice Ordinance "Prosecution Work Rules," which regulates the procedure for dispatching prosecutors, a dispatch period of up to one month can be approved by the Prosecutor General, but for dispatches exceeding one month, approval from the Minister of Justice is required.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im, who joined the investigation team on January 14, had his one-month dispatch period, which can be approved at the discretion of the Prosecutor General, expire, and last month received one extension approval from the Ministry of Justice, with the dispatch period ending on the 14th.

Prosecutor Kim originally belonged to the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office but was transferred to the Busan District Prosecutors' Office one week after joining the investigation team and has been conducting the investigation in a dispatched capacity.

According to the "Guidelines on the Establishment and Operation of the Prosecutor Dispatch Review Committee," enacted by the Ministry of Justice at the end of 2019 to resolve prosecutor dispatch issues, additional dispatch of these two individuals could be allowed without issue.

Article 2, Paragraph 2 of the guidelines (Principles of Prosecutor Dispatch and Acting Duties) states, "The maximum period for acting as a prosecutor is three months, and appointments exceeding three months are only permitted when special circumstances are recognized, considering the nature of the duties and manpower conditions of each prosecution office."

Depending on the scale, difficulty, and importance of the investigation, dispatch work exceeding three months is fully possible.

However, despite Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's request that these two are "personnel who cannot be replaced by other prosecutors," Minister Park refused to approve the extension of their dispatch on the previous day.

The Ministry of Justice is reportedly viewing the Prosecutor General's method of issuing dispatch orders without consulting the Ministry and continuously renewing them as problematic.

Currently, the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office is conducting a two-track investigation into this case: "illegal travel ban" and "investigation pressure." Among the five prosecutors, including team leader Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee, two prosecutors are assigned to each track.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im and Prosecutor Kim have been in charge of the investigation related to the "illegal travel ban," investigating Cha Gyu-geun, head of the Immigration and Foreign Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Justice, and Prosecutor Lee Gyu-won, the key suspect in this case, respectively.

The investigation team has been reviewing the reapplication of an arrest warrant for Director Cha, whose previous warrant was dismissed, and the disposition of Prosecutor Lee, who has undergone four summons investigations.

In Prosecutor Lee's case, since the Gongu Office Act designates the Gongu Office as the investigative body for crimes by high-ranking officials, Suwon District Prosecutors' Office transferred the case to the Gongu Office to avoid legal controversy over whether other investigative agencies could conduct compulsory investigations before the transfer. However, since the case was retransferred to the prosecution, the investigation team must carefully consider whether to request an arrest warrant.

Moreover, Director Cha, who had refused additional summons investigations after the recent dismissal of the arrest warrant, agreed to appear for questioning on the 16th, scheduling further investigation. However, Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im, who has been investigating Director Cha, had his dispatch period end on the 14th, making it impossible for him to continue the investigation.

At this critical turning point in the investigation, Minister Park has effectively removed both prosecutors investigating the "illegal travel ban" allegations.

A current prosecutor, A, said, "I did not expect the minister to obstruct the investigation so blatantly. Perhaps because they expected the investigation intensity to decrease after the case was transferred to the Gongu Office and that expectation was dashed, it seems they know that Prosecutor Lee or Director Cha's actions at the time could be subject to criminal punishment."

Another prosecutor, B, expressed outrage, saying, "Although not openly stated, this is practically telling them not to investigate. Removing prosecutors who have been investigating for months at the most critical time and forcing prosecutors unfamiliar with the investigation to continue by reviewing case records is clearly an act of obstructing the investigation."

Prosecutor C pointed out, "There is a world of difference between someone who already knows the case and someone starting completely anew. This is why prosecutors who handled important cases directly appear in court to maintain the prosecution."

Prosecutor Lee is suspected of having submitted a false investigation number in a request for an emergency travel ban on former Deputy Minister Kim in March 2019 while dispatched to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office's Past Affairs Investigation Team. Initially, the request included the case number of a 2013 sexual assault case in which former Deputy Minister Kim was cleared (Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office 2013 Criminal Case No. 65889). However, the emergency travel ban approval request later submitted to the Ministry of Justice replaced this with a fake investigation number, "Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1."

The previously cleared case number cannot be used for emergency travel ban requests, and the 2019 Internal Investigation No. 1 case at Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office was only assigned a case number on May 30, two months later, for a completely different case. Thus, the allegations of false official document creation and use against Prosecutor Lee have been substantially confirmed.

Although the prosecution investigation was expected to gain momentum after Kim, head of the Gongu Office, retransferred the case to the prosecution, it has faced a crisis close to the "disbandment" of the investigation team. Whether by reinforcing the investigation team with other prosecutors within the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office or receiving dispatched prosecutors to take over the cases handled by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Im and Prosecutor Kim, whoever takes over will require considerable time to understand the case through the investigation records.

Especially, with the need to conduct summons investigations for Prosecutor Lee, who has refused summons while advocating for "Gongu Office transfer," the prosecution's investigative momentum has sharply declined, increasing the likelihood that the entire investigation will fizzle out.

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