The second comprehensive special prosecutor's team (Special Prosecutor Kwon Chang-young), launched saying it would investigate remaining suspicions after the three major special probes into insurrection, Kim Keon-hee, and the Marines, will wrap up its 180-day investigation on the 23rd. Even though the special prosecutor act was revised to extend the probe period three times, critics say the results were limited, including handing off major suspicions.
The special prosecutor's team will hold a briefing at 11 a.m. on the 24th at its office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, to announce the final investigation results. The team investigated for 180 days, the longest on record, and was the largest among past special prosecutor teams.
The special prosecutor's team indicted more than 50 people, including former President Yoon Suk-yeol and first lady Kim Keon-hee. Investigating the "presidential office residence relocation suspicion" linked to Kim, it indicted 13 people, including former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min, People Power Party lawmaker Yoon Han-hong, and 21gram CEO Gen.Kim Tae-young. Board of Audit and Inspection member Yoo Byung-ho (former secretary general), who is suspected of quashing an audit by the Board of Audit and Inspection, and senior BAI officials were also sent to trial.
The team also sent to trial former President Yoon, former Office of National Security chief Shin Won-sik, and former first deputy national security adviser Kim Tae-hyo, who are suspected of ordering the dissemination to the United States and other allies of messages justifying the Dec. 3 emergency martial law.
It also investigated allegations that the prosecution quashed the Deutsch Motors stock manipulation probe and that former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung and others took part in insurrection, indicting former and current senior prosecutors.
It also sparked controversy by differing in interpretation from previous special prosecutor teams. While the insurrection special prosecutor team did not book Cho Sung-hyun, former commander of the 1st Security Group of the Capital Defense Command, over the "Seogang Bridge return," the comprehensive special prosecutor team indicted him without detention on suspicion of engaging in important duties related to insurrection.
It also indicted Hong Jang-won, former first deputy director of the National Intelligence Service, on suspicion of engaging in important duties related to insurrection. Until now, Hong had been credited with preventing the situation from escalating by refusing former President Yoon's unlawful arrest order on the day emergency martial law was declared.
The comprehensive special prosecutor's team failed to reach conclusions on key suspicions and handed them off again. Earlier, the Kim Keon-hee special prosecutor's team failed to reach a conclusion on Won Hee-ryong, former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, identified as the "higher-up" behind the route change of the Seoul–Yangpyeong Expressway. The comprehensive team retrieved the case that had been transferred to the National Office of Investigation (NOI) and summoned Won twice for questioning, but failed to establish charges. The case will be transferred back to the NOI.
Although the team conducted on-site verification by flying by helicopter to detention facilities of the Yeonpyeong unit marked as "collection center" in the "Noh Sang-won notebook," it failed to substantiate the charges because it could not secure testimony from the former commander Noh.
Regarding allegations that the presidential office under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration interfered in the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's "SSANGBANGWOOL remittances to North Korea case," the special prosecutor's team characterized it as "a suspected super-scale state corruption case by state power." However, there was no notable progress in the investigation, and it is reportedly set to be transferred again to the National Office of Investigation (NOI).