Analysis of Park View Contractors List

The prosecution began in earnest to investigate the allegation of special application treatments during the sales of Park View Apartments located in Bundang-Gu, Seongnam-Si, Kyounggi. The central investigative office of the Supreme Public Prosecutor`s Office (SPPO) announced on May 6 that the case is assigned to the special investigative office of the Suwon District Public Prosecutor`s Office (Suwon DPPO).

Accordingly, Suwon DPPO took over the petition copy of former second deputy director of the National Intelligence Service (NIS), Kim Eun-Sung, in which he raised the allegation of the special treatment, and also the list of all the contractors of Park View from the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office.

The prosecution has a plan to investigate, starting from the content of the petition, whether or not any illegal activities are involved in the apartment sales, whether high-level officials received special application treatment, and whether high positioned persons who intervened in the land usage change have purchased the apartments.

The prosecution inner circle including prosecutor-general Lee Myung-Jae has held an emergency meeting in the day and has decided to begin the investigation of the allegation, and it is rumored that the prosecutor-general commanded prosecutors, `to investigate in fair and transparent manner whether any illegal activities are implicated during the change of land usage or the apartment sales process since various suspicions are amplifying.` A related person of SPPO explained, `As all the suspected crime locations fall in the jurisdiction within Suwon DPPO, and the Seongnam Branch Office of Suwon DPPO has once probed a case in relation with the land usage change of the Baekgung-Chungja area of Bundang, we have decided that Suwon DPPO, an easy place to collect the evidence, is the appropriate authority to investigate the case.`

Previously, the Seoul District Public Prosecutor`s Office summoned former deputy director Kim to question him about the circumstance of petition submission and about whether the content is true. Former deputy director Kim allegedly stated in the prosecution, `The content of the petition about 130 people receiving special application treatment in apartment purchase is true.`

Soo-Hyung Lee sooh@donga.com