The Trial Witness Examination for the 'Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant Incident' Begins... Ministry of Industry Director-Level Official Testifies

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Myunghwan] The witness examination procedure for the trial of former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Baek Woon-gyu and others, who are accused of improper interference in the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant, began on the 23rd.

On this day, at the Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 11 (Presiding Judge Park Heon-haeng), the trial on charges of abuse of authority, obstruction of rights, and obstruction of business was held, with a director-level official from the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Mr. A, appearing as a witness. He was in charge of practical work at the time of the decision to prematurely shut down Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant, and is currently on trial along with two other officials for allegedly ordering the deletion of Wolseong nuclear power plant-related data from PCs in December 2019, ahead of the Board of Audit and Inspection's audit.

Mr. A confirmed that all statements in the prosecution's investigation records were accurately recorded, but stated that some parts of the Board of Audit and Inspection's Q&A documents were written differently from his actual testimony. In this process, he testified that he "reported to Minister Baek at the time" regarding an official letter the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy sent to Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (KHNP) on June 14, 2018, concerning compensation for costs due to the early shutdown of Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant.

The official letter was sent a day before the KHNP board meeting, in response to KHNP's request to the Ministry for a solution to compensate for cost losses, stating that "compensation measures will be taken in accordance with the provisions of the amended laws."

At the trial scheduled for 10 a.m. on the 6th of next month, the prosecution's main examination of Director A is expected to proceed.

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