Prosecutors currently investigating alleged bungled police work in the "Jang Yun-gi case" summoned and questioned former Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) Deputy Minister Park Sung-ju as a suspect.

According to legal sources on the 1st, the Gwangju District Prosecutors Office summoned and questioned the former Deputy Minister last week after booking the person on charges including abuse of authority.

Park Seong-ju, head of the National Office of Investigation (NOI) at the Korean National Police Agency, shares his reflections on concluding his police career during a retirement ceremony at the Korean National Police Agency in Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, in the afternoon on June 30. /Courtesy of News1

Prosecutors were said to have closely examined why, in the early phase of the probe, responsibility for investigating the high school girl murder case involving Jang Yun-gi and the stalking and sexual violence case against a part-time coworker was split between the criminal division and the women and youth division.

They are checking the investigative process and chain of command at the time, particularly whether the initial response to the stalking crime was inadequate and subsequently led to the high school girl's killing.

In earlier prosecutor and police inquiries, statements reportedly indicated that while the frontline investigation team at Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station handling the Jang Yun-gi case sought to merge and investigate even the sexual violence case against a Vietnamese woman, the National Office of Investigation (NOI) instructed a separate investigation through the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency.

The account is that former Deputy Minister Park, who was the NOI chief at the time, relayed a message through the NOI violent crime section chief to the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency violent crime section chief to separate the two cases for investigation.

Prosecutors have also booked and are investigating four members of the police leadership, including the NOI criminal affairs director at the time, on the same charges as former Deputy Minister Park. They plan to wrap up the inquiry soon and decide whether to indict them.

Separately from prosecutors, the National Office of Investigation (NOI), which is looking into the alleged bungled investigation of the Jang Yun-gi case, is also expected to soon conclude its investigation into four police officers at the time—the Gwangju Gwangsan Police Station chief, the criminal division chief, the violent crime team leader, and a violent crime team member.

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