Case Over Prosecutor Park's "Alleged Coaxing of Lee Hwayoung into False Testimony" Transferred to CIO

Transferred from Yeongdeungpo Police Station to the CIO
Civic groups allege Park induced testimony naming Lee Jaemyung as the mastermind.

The case involving Park Sangyong, a deputy chief prosecutor at the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office, who was accused of inducing former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwayoung to give false testimony during an investigation into the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case and thereby falsely accusing President Lee Jaemyung, has been transferred to the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO).

Prosecutor Park Sangyong is forcibly removed from a hearing held on April 14 by the National Assembly's Special Committee on Fact-Finding into Alleged Fabricated Indictments by Political Prosecutors under the Yoon Suk Yeol administration. Photo by Kim Hyunmin

According to police and other sources on November 14, the Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station transferred the case against Prosecutor Park, involving allegations of false accusation and abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights, to the CIO on November 6.

Earlier, civic groups including the Institute for People's Livelihood and Economic Research and Seoul Voice filed a complaint with the National Investigation Headquarters of the Korean National Police Agency against Prosecutor Park and former President Yoon Sukyeol, among others, on suspicion of false accusation; abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights; leaking official secrets; and defamation under the Act on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection. The Seoul Yeongdeungpo Police Station, which was assigned the case, questioned the complainants on October 25.

The complaint stems from the so-called "salmon-and-soju party" allegation that Prosecutor Park tried to sway Lee Hwayoung while investigating the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office (now the Suwon District Prosecution Office) in 2023.

The complainants allege that Prosecutor Park pressured Lee, who was in detention at the time, to testify that President Lee was the mastermind behind the North Korea remittance case. They claim that Park induced Lee to give false testimony by saying, in effect, that "bail and other measures would only be possible if there were a confession in which Lee Jaemyung was the ringleader and Lee Hwayoung was an accomplice."

They also alleged that Prosecutor Park hinted at pressure from superiors by saying during the investigation that he "couldn't go on," and argued that former President Yoon and others may also have been involved in the false accusation.

The current CIO Act stipulates that crimes including abuse of authority and obstruction of the exercise of rights by prosecutors and other high-ranking public officials fall within the agency's investigative jurisdiction.

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