The ruling bloc — including the Democratic Party of Korea, the Rebuilding Korea Party and the Progressive Party — called for the arrest and investigation of Prosecutor Park Sang-yong, who led the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance case, and demanded a probe into his superiors.
Members of the special parliamentary investigation committee from those parties held a press conference Wednesday and said, "The second comprehensive special counsel must immediately arrest and investigate Prosecutor Park and probe the higher-ups, including Yoon Suk-yeol, to uncover the truth behind politically motivated fabricated indictments."
The committee members claimed that Prosecutor Park, who was in charge of the Ssangbangwool North Korea remittance investigation, fabricated evidence and coerced testimony to target President Lee Jae-myung. They specifically took issue with allegations that Park pressured former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young into making a false confession, telling him to the effect that "parole is only possible if Lee Jae-myung becomes the principal offender."
They also alleged that the investigation violated the principle of separating co-defendants during detention. They explained that evidence emerged showing co-defendants were gathered in storage rooms and video recording rooms, provided meals and amenities, and had their testimonies coordinated.
"Visitor passes were issued to Ssangbangwool affiliates, allowing them to enter and exit the prosecutor's office freely as if it were their own home, attending to Kim Sung-tae," the committee members said. "Extraterritorial privileges were granted, including smuggling in alcohol and salmon dishes, and opportunities for so-called 'testimony seminars' to coordinate statements — revealing charges of abuse of authority and obstruction of official duties through deception."
Regarding Prosecutor Park's full denial of the testimony seminar and outside food allegations during a National Assembly hearing in September last year, they countered that "testimony from on-site correctional officers has revealed this to be perjury." On the Ministry of Justice's decision the previous day to suspend Park from duty, they said it was "a natural step, but it must not stop here."
They demanded: △immediate arrest and investigation of Prosecutor Park; △a full-scale investigation into the higher-ups in the Presidential Office, Ministry of Justice and prosecution under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration; △inspection and investigation of members of the so-called "Suwon District Prosecutors' Office group chat"; and △an investigation into whether the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office's past statement denying the smuggling of salmon and alcohol constitutes fabrication of official documents.
"Rectifying the unchecked power of the prosecution goes beyond normalizing the criminal justice system — it is about restoring democracy," the committee members said. "We will rebuild the collapsed foundations of justice and hold those responsible accountable to the end, so that a politicized prosecution can never take root again."