Police have expanded the size of the task force (TF) investigating the 2024 assassination attempt on President Lee Jae-myung, which has been designated as a terror attack.
An official at the Korean National Police Agency's National Office of Investigation (NOI) said at a regular press briefing on the 2nd, "We reinforced the TF with 24 investigators, expanding it to a total of 69 members (from the previous 45)."
An official at the Korean National Police Agency said, "Because part of the case has already gone to trial, we needed to conduct additional legal review, so we brought in a legal support team," and added, "There is also some content related to the National Intelligence Service, and we increased personnel to conduct a more empirical investigation."
The official added, "We are securing and analyzing case records from the time," and "We are also conducting witness interviews with officials at the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency."
The TF obtained trial records and written judgments from the Busan District Prosecutors' Office and Busan District Court related to the investigation and trial. It also received some materials from the National Intelligence Service.
On Jan. 2, 2024, when the president was leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, he was stabbed in the left side of the neck by a knife wielded by a person surnamed Kim, 67, during a visit to Gadeokdo in Busan and underwent surgery and hospitalization. The government designated the incident as "terror," and the Korean National Police Agency formed the TF on the 20th.