Prosecutors Investigate Leak of Lee’s Personal Documents

The Seoul District Prosecutors’ Office called in Hong, a 55-year-old former campaigner for former Grand National Party Chair Park Geun-hye, yesterday as part of its investigation into the leak of former Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak’s personal information.

The prosecution questioned Hong on whether he asked Kwon O-han, a retired police officer, to issue copies of the resident registration records of Lee`s family and residents, and how the records obtained from Kwon ended in the hands of Uri Party lawmaker Kim Hyeok-gyu, who raised the suspicion that Lee had falsely registered his address for the purpose of real-estate speculation.

As Hong and Kwon gave conflicting statements, prosecutors also conducted a cross-examination of the two. While Hong claimed that Kwon proposed to issue the documents first, Kwon said that Hong asked him to issue them, sending him a memo containing the resident registration numbers of Lee’s family needed in the process.

It is confirmed that Kwon attended the meeting presided by Hong, regularly showing up at the “Mapo Team” meetings, which refer to Park’s fringe election campaign team meetings, since February.

An election campaign official for Park said that day, “Introduced by an election campaigner, Kwon joined the Mapo Team. He has even his desk in the election office, collecting information,” adding, “He also participated in most meetings, but failed to win trust from other team members as he is deeply interested in political maneuvering.”

It is known that the resident registration documents of Lee’s wife, brother and brother-in-law were issued by a district office in Seoul on June 7 on Kwon’s request. It also found that Lee’s document was issued illegally by another district office on June 4 on the request of a former official at Park’s supporters’ club.

Choi, a 55-year-old former leading member of Park’s supporters’ club, said yesterday, “As Lee’s real estate speculation and false address have become a hot issue, I requested my friend Kim who works at a district office in Seoul to issue Lee’s document.” Kim said, “I issued the document on the request of Choi. But on seeing Lee’s name, I told him it was illegal and immediately scrapped the document.”

Meanwhile, the prosecution is planning to summon GNP lawmakers Lee Hye-hoon, Yoo Seung-min and former GNP lawmaker Seo Cheong-won, and Uri lawmakers Kim Hyeok-gyu and Kim Jong-ryul at the request of Lee’ brother-in-law and the GNP.