Prosecution Seeks Prison Sentence in 2nd Trial for Former Investigator Kim Tae-woo Who Exposed 'Blue House Inspection Cover-up'

Former Investigator Kim Tae-woo / Photo by Moon Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The prosecution has requested a prison sentence in the appellate trial for Kim Tae-woo, the newly elected mayor of Gangseo District, Seoul, a former prosecutor investigator who was prosecuted for leaking official secrets after exposing allegations of cover-up by the Blue House's special inspection team during the Moon Jae-in administration.

On the 10th, the prosecution, at the Suwon District Court Appellate Division 1-3 (Presiding Judges Park Jung-woo, Park Pyeong-gyun, Eom Gi-pyo), requested the court to sentence Kim to 2 years and 6 months in prison, stating, "All the charges against the defendant are recognized as guilty."

On the day, Kim said, "I made nearly 40 public interest reports solely out of a desire for the country to be properly governed, the most representative being the 'cover-up of the investigation into Yoo Jae-soo, former Deputy Mayor of Busan,'" adding, "Some of the public interest reports led to investigations, and some even resulted in final rulings by the Supreme Court," and "This was not indiscriminate exposure but a single-minded public interest report selecting only those among numerous intelligence reports that I believed to be crimes."

His lawyer also appealed, saying, "The defendant was recently elected as the mayor of Gangseo District in the 8th local government election. If the defendant had truly committed a crime, he would not have been elected," and "If the defendant receives a sentence that invalidates his election due to this criminal case, a re-election or by-election will have to be held again, and the damage will fall on the 600,000 residents of Gangseo District."

Kim was elected as the People Power Party candidate for mayor of Gangseo District in the local elections held on the 1st, winning 51.30% of the vote, defeating the Democratic Party candidate Kim Seung-hyun, who received 48.69%. Elected officials are disqualified if they receive a confirmed fine of 1 million won or more for violating the Public Official Election Act. The appellate trial verdict is scheduled for August 12.

Previously, Kim was prosecuted for repeatedly leaking official secrets to the media and others from December 2018 to February 2019 while on dispatch to the Blue House special inspection team.

The prosecution considered five items among the disclosures, including allegations of bribery involving Woo Yoon-geun, ambassador to Russia, misconduct intelligence, special inspection team intelligence reports, misconduct intelligence on Kim Sang-gyun, chairman of the Korea Railroad Corporation, corruption intelligence on airport railroad employees, and inspection materials related to the leak of KT&G trend reports, as official secrets.

The first trial found four of these items guilty, excluding the KT&G case, and sentenced Kim to one year in prison with a two-year probation.

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