Photo: Former Supreme Prosecutor Yun Seok-yeol (left). Credit: Yonhap.
More evidence surfaced that the Public Prosecutors’ Office 검찰청 colluded with the conservative party while Yun Seok-yeol 윤석열 was the Supreme Prosecutor 검찰총장.
An investigative report previously claimed that in April 2020, Son Jun-seong 손준성, a high-ranking PPO official who reported directly to then-Supreme Prosecutor Yun, conveyed a draft criminal complaint against liberal politicians and journalists containing information from within the PPO to Kim Ung 김웅, who was then running to be a conservative legislator. (See previous coverage, “Yun Seok-yeol’s Greatest Challenge.”) Yun Seok-yeol had claimed the draft document was fabricated, but investigation by the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office 대검찰청 revealed that the draft document had indeed originated from Son.
Yun also claimed that the charges of collusion were a spy agency operation against him, alleging that Park Jie-won 박지원, head of the National Intelligence Service 국가정보원, was seen meeting with the whistleblower Jo Seong-eun 조성은, as well as an aide from the presidential campaign of Hong Jun-pyo 홍준표. Hong, a conservative rival of Yun, denied involvement.
Meanwhile, a newly leaked PPO document from March 2020 showed the PPO formulating a response to the criminal charges against Yun’s mother-in -law, who was sentenced to three years in prison in July 2020 for fraudulently receiving government subsidies for unlicensed hospices. At the time, liberal politicians and journalists were attacking the PPO for allegedly dragging its feet in the prosecution of the then-Supreme Prosecutor’s mother-in-law.
The Democratic Party 민주당 claimed the March 2020 document showed the motivation for the April 2020 collusion, as the PPO under Yun sought to enlist conservative politicians to file a complaint against liberal journalists and politicians, to be investigated by the PPO.
