Kim Woong Consistently Says "I Don't Remember" in 2nd Trial Regarding 'Allegations of Soliciting Prosecution'

Son Joon-sung, Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Daegu High Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor), appeared as a witness in the second trial regarding the 'accusation solicitation' allegations and consistently maintained the attitude of "I do not remember," just as he did in the first trial.

Former People Power Party lawmaker Kim Woong testified at Son's trial held on the 12th at the Seoul High Court Criminal Division 6-1 (Presiding Judges Jung Jae-oh, Choi Eun-jung, and Lee Ye-seul) that he did not remember the circumstances under which he delivered the accusation documents against ruling party officials at the time to Cho Seong-eun, who was the vice chairman of the opposition party's election countermeasures committee, ahead of the April 2020 general election.

Former lawmaker Kim Woong.
Photo by Yonhap News

He also said he did not remember the person who sent him the message or any details of the message.

When asked whether the person who sent the message was Prosecutor Son, he replied, "If that were the case, I would have remembered, but since I do not remember, I think it is highly unlikely."

However, when asked by Son's defense whether he had contacted Prosecutor Son before or after sending the Telegram message to Ms. Cho, he flatly said, "No."

Kim also testified as a witness in the first trial and said "I do not remember" to most of the questions.

On the other hand, Ms. Cho, who appeared as a witness afterward, testified about the time she received the message with the accusation documents from Kim, saying, "I understood it as a request to create accusation documents to attack pro-Moon Jae-in media outlets and others to gain benefits and to submit them to the prosecution at the party level." Ms. Cho is the person who first reported the accusation solicitation allegations to the media and filed a public interest report with investigative authorities.

The court announced that after additional witness examinations, the closing arguments will be held on the 24th of next month. During the closing, the High-ranking Officials' Crime Investigation Department prosecutor will present the sentencing request, and the defendant will give the final statement, after which the court will set the date for the verdict.

The accusation solicitation allegations involve claims that the prosecution instructed the opposition party to file accusations against former lawmaker Choi Kang-wook, who was a proportional representative candidate for the Open Democratic Party in April 2020, and other pro-ruling party figures such as Yoo Si-min, then chairman of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation.

In January, the first trial judged as fact the investigation results of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO) that the accusation documents and related materials were passed in the order of Prosecutor Son → former lawmaker Kim → Ms. Cho, and sentenced Prosecutor Son to one year in prison.

Prosecutor Son was impeached in December last year over the accusation solicitation allegations. The Constitutional Court, which is handling the impeachment trial, suspended the trial in April, citing that a criminal trial is underway for the same reasons as the impeachment request.

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