Police investigating the 2024 assassination attempt on President Lee Jae-myung, which was designated as a "terror" attack, carried out searches and seizures at the National Assembly and other locations on the 12th.
According to the National Assembly Intelligence Committee and the Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) Gadeokdo terror case investigation task force (TF), TF investigators began searches and seizures at 4:30 p.m. that day targeting the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, the National Intelligence Service, and the Office for Government Policy Coordination's Counterterrorism Center.
However, in the case of the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, the search failed. In line with National Assembly custom, police investigators reportedly visited the speaker's office before commencing the on-premises search to seek cooperation. But because Speaker Woo Won-sik was absent, and after the office requested further consultations following a face-to-face briefing, they withdrew around 6 p.m. without securing the targets for seizure.
The key targets for seizure are the closed-door minutes of an Intelligence Committee meeting held around September last year. The minutes are said to contain questions from Intelligence Committee lawmakers and responses from the National Intelligence Service (NIS) regarding the assailant, a person surnamed Kim, and how the incident occurred.
On Jan. 2, 2024, President Lee, then leader of the Democratic Party of Korea, visited Gadeokdo in Busan, when a 67-year-old person surnamed Kim slashed the left side of Lee's neck with a weapon, leading to surgery and hospitalization. The Busan Metropolitan Police Agency investigating at the time concluded Kim acted alone without collusion or a mastermind.
However, ruling party figures raised suspicions that during the Yoon Suk-yeol administration, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Counterterrorism Center downplayed and distorted the case by not designating it as a terror attack and by destroying evidence at the scene, and the government designated the incident as "terror." The Ministry of Government Legislation determined the case met the elements under the Counter-Terrorism Act. The Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) launched TF operations on the 26th of last month with two investigative teams totaling 45 members.