"Request for Cooperation in Bypassing Moon Jiseok on Coupang Case at Supreme Prosecutors' Office... Concerned About Causing Another Stir"

The team of Permanent Special Prosecutor An Kwonseop, who investigated allegations of a cover-up in the Coupang investigation, concluded that the leadership of the Bucheon Branch of the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office excluded Prosecutor Moon Jiseok after finding fault with his unexpected actions, specifically his failure to adhere to the normal reporting chain during case handling.

Permanent Special Prosecutor Kwon-Seop Ahn, who is investigating allegations of covering up the Coupang investigation and non-payment of retirement benefits, is arriving at the Permanent Special Prosecutor's Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul on December 31, 2025. Photo by Dongju Yoon

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According to the indictment filed on March 9 against Prosecutor Um Heejun (then Chief of the Bucheon Branch) and Prosecutor Kim Donghee (then Deputy Chief of the Bucheon Branch) on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, Prosecutor Kim discovered on March 7 last year, during the first Supreme Prosecutors' Office report on the Coupang case, that Prosecutor Moon had directly raised objections with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office without any internal discussion or reporting to his superiors at the branch.

At the time, Chief Prosecutor Um called Prosecutor Moon, who was then the supervising prosecutor in charge, and spoke with him for nine minutes, admonishing him for communicating directly with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office without reporting to the branch chief. Subsequently, Prosecutor Moon was excluded from the reporting chain related to the case.

It was also found that Prosecutor Kim, who was then the deputy chief of the branch, requested cooperation from the Supreme Prosecutors' Office leadership to "bypass" Moon Jiseok.

On April 21 last year, he sent a message to Lee Jaeman, then head of the Labor Investigation Support Division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, stating, "If the Supreme Prosecutors' Office returns the second report on the Coupang case, please quietly notify either me or Prosecutor Shin Kahyun (the lead prosecutor). We are proceeding with the reporting process quietly because we are concerned that Chief Prosecutor Moon Jiseok might contact the Supreme Prosecutors' Office again and cause a disturbance."

Afterward, Prosecutor Kim revised the second report to reflect some of Prosecutor Moon’s comments as well as the additional requirements of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office. He then reported to Prosecutor Um, "I am about to send the revised report to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, but I have not yet informed Chief Moon," and added, "If the Supreme Prosecutors' Office approves, I will simply reassign and handle the case myself; if it is returned, I will process the case slowly."

The Special Prosecutor’s team concluded that Prosecutors Um and Kim had communicated in advance with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in order to completely exclude Prosecutor Moon from handling the Coupang case.

The special prosecutor’s team believes that the two conspired to force Prosecutor Shin to perform duties he was not obligated to, and to obstruct Prosecutor Moon’s exercise of his right to raise objections, and therefore indicted them without detention on February 27 on charges including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights.

On this day, Prosecutor Um issued another statement, refuting the allegations by asserting that he had not concealed the fact of reporting to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office from Prosecutor Moon, nor failed to convey Prosecutor Moon’s opinions to the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

In addition, he stated that since the special prosecutor’s team submitted the indictment to the National Assembly without redacting personal information such as the defendants’ addresses and mobile phone numbers, and as the indictment was leaked to the general public, causing further harm, he plans to file a complaint against Special Prosecutor An Kwonseop and others for violating the Personal Information Protection Act.

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