Yoon Suk-yeol: "The Claim That the Prosecutor General Manipulated a Political Party Is a Fabricated Frame"

"Cannot Accept the Contents of the Accusation Letter"
Explanation on 'Major Media' and '120-Hour Workweek' Issues

Former Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-yeol, a presidential primary candidate of the People Power Party, is answering questions at the 'People's Signal Interview' held at Jeul Studio in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, on the afternoon of the 10th.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] Yoon Seok-yeol, the People Power Party's presidential candidate and former Prosecutor General, refuted the 'report solicitation suspicion,' saying, "Solicitation means a superior ordering a subordinate, but the idea that the Prosecutor General ordered a party with hundreds of lawmakers is itself a malicious fabrication frame."

On the 10th, at the 'People Signal' open interview held at Jle Studio in Geumcheon-gu, Seoul, Yoon responded to the question, "It seems like you try to escape political attacks when problems arise," by stating, "At that time, in January last year, I dismissed all the people I had assigned six months earlier to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office and sent those assigned to the Central District Prosecutors' Office or key positions related to major investigations and trials to the provinces," explaining his position.

Regarding the photo of the complaint letter allegedly exchanged between Prosecutor Son Jun-sung and People Power Party lawmaker Kim Woong, he said, "Looking at the contents of the complaint letter seen in the media, it is not logically convincing," and argued, "Even if someone else wrote the complaint letter, it is strange to include both the case of Cho and that of Prosecutor Han Dong-hoon in one complaint letter, and also that events that occurred on April 3 are included in the complaint letter dated April 3."

When asked whether he acknowledged that something was exchanged between Prosecutor Son and Lawmaker Kim, he replied, "No," adding, "Prosecutor Son also denies having sent it, and the font that appeared saying 'Sent by Son Jun-sung' is strange, and since it is shown that it can be corrected at any time," he said. He also pointed out that the document of the complaint letter exchanged between them was not the entire file as a problem.

He continued, "Investigations require evidence, not pushing forward based on intuition," and reiterated, "I have never seen or known about such things myself."

However, he said that if it is confirmed that Prosecutor Son gave the draft complaint letter to Lawmaker Kim, he could apologize to the public as the Prosecutor General at the time. Yoon said, "If the fact (of delivery) is clearly confirmed, whether it was Son Jun-sung or any staff or prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, as the Prosecutor General, I could apologize to the public for not properly overseeing such matters, but since it is currently ongoing, I have instructed for a prompt investigation."

The interview that day focused on various controversies surrounding Yoon. Regarding the investigation related to his spouse, he stated, "I have conducted investigations for decades, but I have never used a special investigation unit for one year and six months over such a matter. I think it is unprecedented."

Regarding the controversial 'major media' remark during the press conference on the 8th, he explained, "When I was an agency head, I treated major and internet media fairly," but emphasized again, "Please do not involve small-scale internet media in conspiracies."

Regarding his '120-hour workweek' remark, he clarified, "In the case of startup professionals, they have a small number of employees and work intensively when they receive tasks, so they have to send them out like that; they cannot divide the work like large companies," adding, "It was not a generalization about all manual laborers."

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