In connection with the Kim Keon-hee special counsel's alleged "biased investigation into the Unification Church," former assistant special counsel Park Sang-jin will be summoned for questioning by the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).
According to legal sources on the 19th, the CIO's Fourth Investigation Division (Chief Prosecutor Cha Jung-hyun) plans to question former assistant special counsel Park as a reference witness this morning.
The special counsel team is under suspicion of having failed to investigate even after securing last August the statement by former Unification Church world headquarters chief Yoon Young-ho to the effect that a Unification Church figure provided money and valuables to politicians belonging to the Democratic Party of Korea.
At the time, the special counsel team secured a statement from former chief Yoon that around 2018 to 2020 he provided former Minister of Oceans and Fisheries Chun Jae-soo with two luxury watches along with tens of millions of won as a bribe-like offer to resolve church agenda items such as promoting a Japan-Korea undersea tunnel.
Former chief Yoon is also said to have testified to the effect that he delivered money and valuables to former Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Jong-seong and former United Future Party (UFP) lawmaker Kim Kyu-hwan, among others.
The special counsel team reportedly did not launch a formal investigation into these current and former lawmakers and left the matter only in an investigation report, and only in November last year concluded that those who gave and received the money and valuables could face bribery or Political Funds Act violations and assigned a preliminary inquiry (pre-case registration) case number.
In response, the People Power Party reported Special Counsel Min and the investigative team to police on charges including abuse of authority and dereliction of duty, saying the special counsel team conducted a biased investigation. The CIO later took over the case from police and launched an investigation.
On Dec. 26 last year, the CIO conducted a search and seizure targeting the Kim Keon-hee special counsel. On Jan. 23, it also seized and searched the mobile phones of Special Counsel Min Joong-ki and assistant special counsels, as well as the investigation team's PCs.
Last month, the special counsel team summoned as a reference witness Chae Hee-man, chief of the Pyeongtaek District Office, Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, who led the Unification Church-related probe. Chae is said to have testified that former assistant special counsel Park and Special Counsel Min said to the effect that "former chief Yoon's statement does not appear to be a subject of investigation."