Names on list included Samsung’s Lee, chief justice, police chief


Opposition politicians lashed out at prosecutors for watering down their investigation into the government’s illegal surveillance of civilians after they closed the case on Wednesday without charging any additional high-level suspects.

The prosecutors announced that the illegal surveillance activities of the defunct ethics division of the Prime Minister’s Office was overseen by former vice minister of knowledge economy Park Young-joon and former Presidential Secretary for Employment and Labor Lee Young-ho.

They were found to have targetted about 30 prominent figures in government, parliament, business and regional circles. The list included former chief justice Lee Yong-hun, Samsung Electronics chairman Lee Kun-hee, Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon and former police chief Eo Cheong-soo, the prosecutors said.

Cheong Wa Dae responded by issuing an apology for the development almost immediately after the results were announced.

“(Cheong Wa Dae) is apologetic to the public that people who have worked at Cheong Wa Dae were involved in the abuse of power at the ethics division under the Prime Minister’s Office,” President Lee’s spokesperson Park Jeong-ha said.

“Cheong Wa Dae will pay particular attention to ensure that similar incidents do not occur again.”

The main opposition Democratic United Party, however, was not appeased by the results of the investigation and called for a parliamentary investigation.

“The body of the surveillance scandal is President Lee Myung-bak, former lawmaker Lee Sang-deuk and a person suspected of illegal doings is the minister of justice … there is no way the prosecutors investigation can be properly done,” DUP committees on the surveillance scandal and corruptions of the current administration said. The current justice minister is Kwon Jae-jin, who was the presidential secretary for civic affairs.

“To reveal the truth, Minister Kwon Jae-jin needs to step down. The DUP submitted the petition calling for his removal, and will soon submit a petition for launching a parliamentary investigation.”

In relation to the case, Park and Lee were indicted on charges of abuse of authority. Park is currently under arrest on charges of taking bribes from the developer of the shopping mall Picity.

Park also ordered the division to gather information about Ulsan government officials in order to help a company in the southeastern city in return for 100 million won ($86,000).

Park, however, was found to have had no involvement in destroying evidence during the initial investigation in to the case in 2010.

In addition former chief of the PMO’s ethics division Lee In-kyu was indicted without detention on the same charges.

Former ethics division official Jin Kyung-rak, who carried out orders given by Park and the two Lees, was indicted for obstruction of duty and for searching premises without authority.

Regarding the involvement of Cheong Wa Dae, the investigators said that there was insufficient evidence to implicate the presidential civil affairs secretariat, which was pointed to as the source of the 50 million won given to Jang Jin-su as a bribe.

Jang is a former ethics division official whose revelations in March resulted in the case being reopened. In March, Jang, who was convicted of destroying evidence regarding the illegal surveillance activities in 2010, revealed that he was bribed and that he was acting under orders from Cheong Wa Dae officials when he destroyed evidence in 2010.

With regards to the reporting hierarchy of the ethics division, the investigators concluded that Park and Lee received reports and that the presidential civic affairs secretariat was not involved.

Aside from the roles of the key officials involved in the case, the prosecutors said that the PMO’s ethics division opened 500 surveillance cases that include 10 current and former lawmakers, eight high-level government officials and five current and former heads of regional governments, as well as seven civilians.

In the cases regarding government officials, however, the investigators said that the activities were within the division’s jurisdiction and that most of the other cases were simple information gathering.

Cases involving “simple” information gathering include chiefs of conglomerates ― identified as L and S of S group and L group respectively ― and Ven. Boseon of the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. However, the information was not gathered through illegal activities, making it difficult to prosecute anyone for related activities, the prosecutors said.

The failure to identify the source of bribes and clarify whether or not “higher-ups” were involved is already putting the prosecutors under fire.

“It is ridiculous that Minister of Justice Kwon Jae-jin was not investigated, who is clearly at the center of the case,” Rep. Lee Sang-min of the Democratic United Party said on Wednesday.

Earlier on in the investigation, other DUP lawmakers claimed that Kwon had been in contact with PMO officials linked in the surveillance scheme.

According to Rep. Park Young-sun of the DUP, Lee In-kyu and other officials visited Cheong Wa Dae on 195 occasions between July 16, 2008 and June 23, 2010. The records revealed by Park showed that Lee and other PMO officials met with a number of officials including the then chief of presidential secretariat for civic affairs Kwon Jae-jin, and Jang Seok-myeong, who is a senior official in the presidential secretariat for civil affairs.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)