The Special Investigation Team for the deceased Marine announced on the 7th that it will summon and interrogate former National Security Office Chief Cho Tae-yong and former Presidential Office Defense Secretary Lim Gi-hoon on the 8th regarding the "VIP anger theory."
Special Prosecutor's Deputy Jeong Min-young noted during a press briefing that, "Tomorrow (8th) at 9:30 a.m., we plan to call former Secretary Lim as a witness for questioning," adding, "The investigation of former Chief Cho will proceed as scheduled tomorrow." However, Deputy Jeong emphasized that the investigation schedule was not set with the intent to consider cross-examination.
Earlier, the Special Investigation Team summoned former Chief Cho on the 29th of last month and questioned him as a suspect. Former Chief Cho is facing allegations of abuse of authority, including exerting external pressure on the investigation into the death of Corporal Chae Sang-byeong.
This will be the second investigation by the Special Investigation Team of former Secretary Lim. The team summoned him for questioning in a closed session on the 25th of last month. It is reported that former Major General Lim is willing to be questioned until 5 p.m. on that day.
The "VIP anger theory" is related to the case of Marine Chae Soo-geun, who died while on duty in 2023. The Marine Corps investigation team, which initiated the investigation of this case, concluded that the former commander of the Marine Corps' 1st Division, Lim Seong-geun, should be charged with negligent homicide in the line of duty. However, after former President Yoon Suk-yeol received this information during a Presidential Office meeting on July 31, 2023, he was enraged, and it is claimed that the investigation results changed after this incident.
Former Chief Cho and former Secretary Lim are known to have attended that meeting. It has been investigated that the two spoke separately with former President Yoon after the meeting. They reportedly stated in a previous Special Investigation Team inquiry that they witnessed former President Yoon getting angry.
Meanwhile, regarding this issue, the Special Investigation Team has been conducting a suspect interrogation of former Major General Lim, who is facing charges of negligent homicide, since the morning of that day. Earlier, former Major General Lim appeared before the Special Investigation Team and was questioned on the 2nd of last month.
Deputy Special Prosecutor Jeong stated, "Former Major General Lim was questioned briefly from about 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. during the first round of questioning, and regarding the charge of negligent homicide, he refused to testify on a significant portion of the issues," adding, "The Special Investigation Team plans to conduct a second round of questioning today based on the additional investigations conducted over the past month since its inception."
The Special Investigation Team is expected to investigate allegations of negligent homicide against former Major General Lim, as well as the "rescue lobbying suspicion." The rescue lobbying suspicion alleges that participants in the group chat of the 'trendy Marines,' including Lee Jong-ho, a key figure in the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation case, lobbied to rescue former Major General Lim.
Deputy Special Prosecutor Jeong also stated regarding former Gyeongbuk Police Chief Kim Cheol-moon, who will be summoned as a witness at 2 p.m. that day, "It is difficult to comment on the possibility of changing his status to a suspect, and I believe additional verification is needed to see if there was any external pressure."
Additionally, Deputy Special Prosecutor Jeong commented on the analysis of First Lady Kim Keon-hee's phone, saying, "The imaging has not been completed, so it has not been provided to the Kim Keon-hee Special Investigation Team," adding, "I will compile the progress in the next day or two and address it at tomorrow's briefing."