Did Police Headquarters Order 'Separate Investigations in Jang Yunki Case'? Consecutive Summons of Investigative Officials

Following the summoning of the sexual violence division chief the previous day,
the violent crime division chief is also called in

Murder charge instead of rape-murder... Investigators seek to verify claims of separated investigations

The police, who are currently investigating allegations of mishandling in the investigation of the Jang Yunki case, have been summoning officials from the National Police Agency Investigation Headquarters in succession. This is to verify the investigative team's testimony that the Investigation Headquarters directed the separation of the murder and sexual assault cases, which led to Jang Yunki being referred to prosecutors on charges of ordinary murder rather than rape-murder, which carries a heavier sentence.

The special investigation team of the National Police Agency announced that starting at 10 a.m. on July 23, it interviewed former Gwangsan Police Station (Gwangju) Chief Kim, summoning him as a suspect, while also conducting witness interviews with officials from the Investigation Headquarters. It was also reported that, after summoning the head of the main office’s sexual violence investigation division as a witness the previous day, the team summoned the head of the violent crime investigation division at headquarters again on this day to verify the chain of command at the outset of this case’s investigation.

National Police Agency, Seoul Seodaemun-gu. Photo by Jin-Hyung Kang

Previously, the investigative team testified that the Investigation Headquarters had directed the separation of the murder of a high school girl by Jang Yunki from an earlier case in which a Vietnamese coworker had been detained and sexually assaulted. On July 21, the police conducted a search and seizure of the Investigation Headquarters on two separate cases, securing digital documents and other materials.

A representative of the Violent Crime Investigation Division of the Investigation Headquarters stated to the National Police Agency press club on July 21, "We judged that, due to the transfer deadline for the murder case, it would be difficult to send both cases to the prosecution at once if the victim had to substantiate the other sexual violence case in that window,” adding, “To ensure investigative completeness, we had the gender and youth division—which is responsible for sexual violence—investigate that case, but we attached the related records to the murder investigation documents.” The official stated that this was described as an integrated, not a separated, investigation, with coordination between the criminal and gender/youth divisions within the same police station.

Ordinarily, it is rare for the Investigation Headquarters to direct individual cases that are usually handled by local police stations. This official also commented, “It’s hard to even call it a directive,” and explained, “While we may comment on procedural matters, it is not typical to issue instructions regarding the charges themselves.”

Meanwhile, the special investigation team announced that after investigating the claim that Jang Yunki might have known the victim unilaterally, it found that allegation to be untrue. A representative of the team said, “We conducted a thorough investigation and concluded that there was no prior acquaintance between the perpetrator and the victim before the crime.” During an interim briefing on July 15, the police had initially mentioned such a possibility, but it has now been corrected as false.

Jang Yunki was indicted and taken into custody in May on charges of murdering Lee Chaewon, a second-year high school student, in Jeollanam-do, Gwangju. He is also accused of detaining and sexually assaulting a Vietnamese woman who was his coworker before this incident.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.