770,000 Pages of Unsorted Evidence

The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office Public Security Department 1 (Chief Song Chan-yeop) began analyzing the investigation records handed over by the National Intelligence Service, (NIS) along with the three suspects of the Ilsimhoe espionage case, including Jang Min-ho (44, arrested), on November 12.

An official of the Prosecutor’s Office said, “The amount of investigation records and confiscated materials is much greater than we had expected. The diskettes and USB (portable storing device) copies that the NIS confiscated from them, and the investigation and private inquiry records that have accumulated for the past 10 years, amount to 770,000 pages.”

When the records for two more suspects, including Democratic Labor Party (DLP) Director-General Choi Ki-yeong (41), are sent in on November 13, the entire amount is expected to be approximately one million pages.

Accordingly, the prosecution is saying that the process of picking out important evidence from the enormous amount of records itself is an overwhelming task, since the records equal over 3,000 300-page books.

An official of the prosecution said, “Material than can be used to support charges, such as encoded documents, are mixed with regular documents, so we have no choice but to look through everything we have in order to find substantial evidence.”

Taking this into consideration, the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office is not only putting all six prosecutors of the Public Security Department 1 to work on the case, but also reviewing the plan of supplementing prosecutors of Department 2 and other prosecutors with public security investigation experience to the investigation team.

In addition, there are other exterior factors that could hinder their investigation. The suspects arrested for this case are exercising their right to remain silent, and the defense is putting pressure on the Public Security authorities saying “The right of assistance by appropriate representation is being violated,” regarding suspect audiences and participation in the inquest. The continued wrangling among politicians regarding this issue, are also likely to cause the prosecution trouble in the investigation process.

will71@donga.com