The second comprehensive special counsel team has imposed an overseas travel ban on Han Dong-hoon, former leader of the People Power Party, in connection with allegations that the Presidential Office interfered with the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation.
The special counsel team, led by Special Prosecutor Kwon Chang-young, announced in a media notice Wednesday that "a travel ban has been imposed on former leader Han," adding that "the measure was taken after a complaint was filed naming him as a defendant in connection with allegations that the Presidential Office interfered with the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation."
The special counsel team is investigating allegations that the Presidential Office under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration improperly intervened in the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office investigation into Ssangbang-ul's money transfers to North Korea. At a regular briefing on the 6th of last month, the special counsel defined the allegation as "a suspected massive abuse-of-power case." The designation was based on evidence that the Yoon administration's Presidential Office had attempted to intervene in the Ssangbang-ul North Korea remittance investigation.
However, after the assistant special prosecutor initially handling the case became embroiled in a fairness controversy over his past representation of former Ssangbang-ul Group Vice Chairman Bang Yong-chul and former Gyeonggi Province Vice Governor for Peace Lee Hwa-young, Assistant Special Prosecutor Kim Chi-heon subsequently took over the case.
The special counsel team has booked Park Sang-yong, then deputy chief prosecutor at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office, as a suspect and imposed a travel ban on him. The team is also examining whether Presidential Office officials, including former Senior Presidential Secretary for Public Discipline Lee Si-won, were involved in the investigation process.
Han pushed back strongly on his Facebook account the same day. "The Lee Jae-myung administration's second comprehensive special counsel has imposed a travel ban on me," he wrote. "Last year, the Corporal Chae special counsel imposed a travel ban on me for absurd reasons and failed to conduct a single interview, and this special counsel is repeating the same overreach."
He continued: "When the Democratic Party of Korea called for me to be summoned as a witness in the parliamentary inquiry aimed at dropping charges against President Lee Jae-myung, they failed to do so, and the Democratic Party and the political special counsels are merely staging repeated shows." He added, "Once again, I say, 'Do your worst.' But election interference is not acceptable." Han is currently running as an independent in the Busan Buk-gap by-election.
