Seongnam City Hall Searched Late Under Director Kim Osu's Orders?… Prosecution "Initially Not Included"

The investigation team is not included even when reporting to Chief Prosecutor Lee Jeong-su.

Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo. Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Choi Seok-jin, Legal Affairs Specialist] As criticism grows over the prosecution’s belated raid on Seongnam City Hall amid investigations into the ‘Daejang-dong development project preferential treatment and lobbying’ allegations, the prosecution has denied reports claiming that ‘Seongnam City Hall was excluded from the initial raid targets due to intervention from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.’

On the 16th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office stated, “It is clearly untrue that the investigation team initially prepared to request a search warrant including Seongnam City Hall or that Seongnam City Hall was excluded from the raid targets by orders from the Central District Prosecutor or others. The investigation team requested and executed the search warrant after considering all investigative circumstances according to the investigation stage.”

On the same day, Chosun Ilbo reported in an article titled ‘Seongnam City Hall Raided Late Due to Intervention from High-Ranking Prosecutors’ that the dedicated investigation team at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, which is investigating the case, initially intended to raid Seongnam City Hall along with Seongnam Urban Development Corporation but excluded it from the raid targets due to intervention from ‘higher-ups.’

Chosun Ilbo also reported that Lee Jung-soo, head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, had no objections to raiding Seongnam City Hall, but after receiving investigative instructions from the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and others to withhold the raid on Seongnam City Hall, he instructed the investigation team to exclude Seongnam City Hall from the raid targets. The report also included that a special prosecutor deputy chief who raised objections to the investigation direction was excluded from the investigation during this process.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office stated that these reports are not true. According to the prosecution, Seongnam City Hall was not included in the raid targets when the investigation team initially reported the raid plan to Prosecutor Lee or when Lee reported to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

Regarding why Seongnam City Hall, which was expected to hold important materials such as various permits and approvals related to the Daejang-dong development project and thus required priority in the raid, was initially excluded from the raid targets, a prosecution official explained, “The warrant was requested after considering the investigative circumstances according to the investigation stage. The investigation team made judgments considering such situations within limited circumstances based on the degree of evidence of criminal suspicion.”

It is interpreted that when the prosecution first began the forced investigation into this case, there was no clue to specify criminal suspicion that then-Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung or Seongnam City Hall officials were involved in giving preferential treatment to Hwacheon Daeyu during the Daejang-dong development project while Lee was mayor of Seongnam, or that the case had not matured enough to request a search warrant.

However, this explanation is less convincing given that the Seongnam Urban Development Corporation, where former Planning Director Yoo Dong-gyu, who was previously arrested, served as acting president, was supervised and managed by Seongnam City, which was also responsible for various project approvals and permits related to the Daejang-dong development project.

Meanwhile, regarding reports that a deputy chief prosecutor belonging to the dedicated investigation team was excluded from the investigation, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office stated, “The deputy chief prosecutor in question was not excluded from the dedicated investigation team but was concurrently handling major ongoing cases. This was an unavoidable measure due to the approaching statute of limitations on the cases originally assigned, requiring expedited case closure.”

Additionally, the prosecution denied reports suggesting disagreements within the investigation team or leadership.

On the 14th, the court dismissed the arrest warrant requested by the prosecution for Kim Man-bae, the major shareholder of Hwacheon Daeyu, raising concerns about the prosecution’s investigation. In particular, opposition parties have called for Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo to step aside from this investigation after it was revealed that he had been appointed and active as a legal advisor for Seongnam City until May of this year, just before his appointment as Prosecutor General.

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