The Democratic Party of Korea warned it will hold prosecutor Park Sang-yong legally accountable after he refused to take an oath as a witness at a parliamentary investigation into allegations of fabricated indictments by prosecutors under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.
Rep. Seo Young-kyo, chair of the special parliamentary investigation committee on the alleged fabricated indictments by politically motivated prosecutors under the Yoon administration, said at a press briefing at the National Assembly on Thursday, "If a witness refuses to take an oath without justifiable cause, the person faces up to three years in prison or a fine of 10 million won to 30 million won."
Prosecutor Park appeared on June 3 as a witness in the parliamentary probe in his capacity as the lead investigator of the "Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case," but was ordered to leave after refusing to take the witness oath. In a statement posted on Facebook shortly after, he wrote, "Taking the oath and testifying would amount to actively cooperating with an unconstitutional and unlawful procedure."
In response, Rep. Seo said, "Loudly claiming that the parliamentary investigation is unlawful and unconstitutional constitutes a violation of the duty of political neutrality and an act of ignoring lawful procedures, which is subject to legal action." When asked whether the party would file a formal complaint, she replied, "A public official can violate political neutrality obligations just by pressing 'like' on Facebook," adding, "We will review various options."
Democratic Party lawmakers on the special committee also claimed that prosecutors who investigated the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case were found to have organized a coordinated response through a group chat ahead of the parliamentary probe.
Rep. Park Sung-joon, the Democratic Party's chief secretary on the committee, said, "During the testimony on June 3, it was revealed that a group chat room existed for coordinating responses to the parliamentary investigation," adding, "Prosecutors from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office Criminal Division 6, who were on the original investigation team, organized a coordinated response."
Rep. Lee Geon-tae said, "Given the need to verify circumstances of inappropriate internal solidarity, prosecutor Ko Du-sung, who was in the group chat, was additionally summoned as a general witness."
Rep. Lee also explained, "According to the committee's investigation, during the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's search and seizure, only 13 out of 66 National Intelligence Service reports related to Ssangbangwool were taken," adding, "The remaining evidence, which appeared to contradict the direction of the investigation, was not collected."
He added, "We confirmed that approximately 15,000 pages of recorded conversations from prison visits involving former chairman Kim and former Gyeonggi Province Peace Vice Governor Lee Hwa-young were not included in the investigation records," stating, "This raises the possibility of selective omission and concealment of key evidence."
Rep. Lee also alleged that the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office conducted a lenient investigation into former chairman Kim's stock manipulation charges and carried out a perfunctory or superficial inspection into the so-called salmon and alcohol party allegations.