Prosecutors to Start Investigating FTA Document Leak

The prosecutor’s office has started an investigation into the leak of confidential documents titled, “Confidential FTA meeting results and key discussions of high-ranking officials.” The documents were reported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade before the national assembly FTA special committee last January. The supreme prosecutors’ office announced on April 22 that with the request of the foreign ministry, the case will be investigated by the 1st special department at the central district prosecutors’ office in Seoul.

The prosecution will soon subpoena ministry officials and lawmakers to find out whether it constitutes an official leak case and to find out who revealed the confidential information. While some in political circles say that the documents “do not contain confidential information even though ‘confidential’ is written on the cover,” the prosecution thinks otherwise.

Many in the prosecutors’ office think that the fact the documents classified as confidential are irrelevant when charging someone with the offense of divulging secrets because what matters is whether the national interests were violated. A foreign ministry official had distributed 45 copies to lawmakers in the national assembly FTA special committee on January 13 and collected them again after the meeting. There were only 10 lawmakers present but 30 copies had been distributed, along with 15 additional copies for others at the committee meeting. A daily newspaper, an Internet media outlet, and a few broadcasting stations covered a story about the documents in question on April 18. The U.S. negotiators paid a lot of attention to the media reports, allegedly.

The assembly formed a fact-finding committee 20 days after the leak and found the writings on the leaked documents similar to those of “J,” an aide to Choi Jae-chun, then a member of the Uri Party. In the meantime, the belated move of requesting an investigation by the foreign ministry was taken, some say, because Cheong Wa Dae was not satisfied with what the fact-finding committee found out. But a foreign ministry official said, “There was no pressure from the presidential office. The ministry felt the need to analyze the incident and clarify things.”

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