Former Prosecutor General Lee Won-seok is said to have conveyed that he will not appear for questioning as a reference witness in the special counsel probe into Kim Keon-hee. With little time left in the special counsel's mandate and no means to forcibly summon a reference witness, observers say the chances of an in-person interview are low.
Lee is said to have submitted a written statement explaining his absence to the special counsel ahead of the questioning scheduled for 2 p.m. today, saying it would be difficult to appear due to personal circumstances. The special counsel's investigation period ends on the 28th.
The special counsel on Kim Keon-hee was reportedly seeking to determine from Lee whether there was dereliction of duty or external pressure during the prosecution's investigation into allegations of Deutsch Motors stock manipulation involving Kim and the Dior bag acceptance allegations.
On May 2 last year, Lee ordered the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office to form a dedicated team over the Dior bag allegations and has since been seen as having clashed with the government. After the complaint was filed in Dec. 2023, the Dior bag allegations saw no clear investigative progress, but there were expectations the probe would gain speed under the prosecutor general's direction.
The Justice Ministry then carried out a major reshuffle, replacing the leadership of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office and the staff at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, and the day after the reshuffle, on the way to work, Lee responded to a question about whether there had been sufficient advance coordination with what became known as seven seconds of silence, prompting various interpretations.
The newly formed team, without summoning Kim, conducted a visit-based interview at an ancillary office of the Presidential Security Service last July, and because this process was not reported to Lee in advance, some claimed it sparked a controversy over bypassing the prosecutor general. After Lee stepped down, the team in October last year cleared both the Deutsch Motors allegations and the Dior bag allegations, with the lead prosecutor at the time being former Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office chief Lee Chang-su.
As the probe nears its end, the special counsel appears to be accelerating efforts to clarify alleged efforts to quash the prosecution's investigation. On the 18th, it reportedly conducted searches and seizures targeting eight people, including former district chief prosecutor Lee, former Justice Minister Park Seong-jae, former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Kim Ju-hyun, and former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung.
The special counsel demanded that former district chief prosecutor Lee, who faces charges of abuse of authority, appear as a suspect, and after he refused, notified him again to appear on the 26th. However, there are expectations that it is unclear whether he will comply.
Believing it will be difficult to wrap up the investigation within the remaining period, the special counsel is said to be focusing on organizing evidentiary records to transfer the case to the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation (NOI).