Dispute Caused by an Assistant Independent Counsel’s Resignation

An Assistant Independent Counsel, Lee Woo-seung, looking into alleged illegal campaign fund raising by Lee Kwang-jae, aide to President Roh Moon-hyun, offered to resign on Monday.

Citing the dispatched prosecutor’s refusal to investigate and the special counsel Kim Jin-heung (Lee’s boss) suspension of him, Lee Woo-seung quit his post. As a result of this, the special counsel team will likely face difficulty in continuing its investigation.

Lee said in a news conference that he cannot make further progress in the investigation because the dispatched prosecutor, identified only by his surname Kim, refused to carry out his order and deliberately hindered the investigation. “I asked the special counsel to withdraw the prosecutor, only to be refused,” he added.

He argued the dispatched prosecutor reported to the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office that he ordered his investigators to use violence in their investigation in which, in fact, he intended to encourage his investigators to completely investigate the case. He added that the prosecutor even called his investigators in to receive the statement about the incident. “The special counsel team suspended me after the prosecutor threatened to disclose about the harsh treatment of the suspect,” he said.

Lee acknowledged he had kicked the suspect in the leg twice while he was investigating the illegal loan case of National Agricultural Cooperative Federation (Nonghyup) to Sun and Moon Group with the amount of 11.5 billion won. However, he did not provide the justification for his claims that the prosecutor allegedly hindered the investigation and turned the written statement into the Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office.

The independent counselor, Kim Jin-heung, countered Lee’s arguments in the press conference, saying that there is no evidence to prove Lee’s argument. He also said he would ask the president to relieve his subordinate, Lee, because violence and a leak of secret information cannot be permitted.

Kim added that the incident was caused by the differences in opinion between the prosecutor and the assistant special counselor.

The Supreme Public Prosecutors’ Office denied the incident, saying they have never been reported by the dispatched prosecutor on the status of special counsel’s probe, internal problems, or the possible use of violence in the investigation.

In the meanwhile, the special counsel summoned Moon Byung-gun, a brother of Moon Byung-wook, a chairman of Sun and Moon Group, to investigate the alleged delivery of the illegal money to Roh prior to the presidential poll.

The independent counsel team also plans to summon Lee Won-ho on Tuesday, the actual owner of a K-nightclub located in Northern Chungcheong province, who is involved in the illegal fund raising case by President Roh Moo-hyun’s close aide, Yang Gil-seung.

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