“Wiretapping Opposing Candidate’s Homes in the Last General Election”

Campaign workers of lawmaker Lee Jung-il (58. current secretary general of the Millennium Democratic Party) were found out to have illegally wiretapped the chief of the election polling committee of an opposing candidate in the last general election. Lee was a candidate of the Millennium Democratic Party at the time.

The Special Investigation Department of the Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office (chief: Woo Byoung-woo) arrested Lee’s driver at the time, Kim (48), on February 6 for eavesdropping (a violation of the Protection of Communications Secrets Act) on the house of an Uri Party official in the Haenam-Jindo election district in the last general election.

The prosecution also applied for an arrest warrant for the chief of the election polling committee of the Millennium Party at the time, a member of the Haenam County Assembly, Kim (63), and a fund supervisor, Kim (43).

The prosecution is currently conducting a through investigation as to whether Lee had something to do with the wiretapping and where the costs for wiretapping requests came from.

The two Kims are suspected of installing a wiretapping device in the homes of a member of the Haenam County Assembly and the chief of the election polling committee of the Uri Party at the time, party member Min Byung-cho (69, CEO of Kookmin Asset Trust), and Hong’s house (69), and wiretapping his telephone calls for four days through an agent in Seoul.

The prosecution found the wiretapping device under a cushion on a living room chair in Hong’s home in Haenam.

Lee was elected by a slight margin at the time.

The Special Investigation Department of the Daejeon District Prosecutor’s Office discovered the case in the process of investigating nationwide agents’ illegal activities in the wake of the case in which an agent kidnapped an infant and killed the infant’s mother.

Meanwhile, the Jeonnam branch of the Uri Party released a statement demanding Lee resign from his post and an apology from the Millennium Party.

Kwon-Hyo Lee Kwon Kim boriam@donga.com goqud@donga.com