Police Search Lawmaker Choi Kang-wook's Office... Minister Han Dong-hoon Suspected of Personal Information Leak

The police have conducted a search and seizure of Choi Kang-wook, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, in connection with allegations of personal information leakage involving Han Dong-hoon, the Minister of Justice.

Choi Kang-wook, Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Photo by Yonhap News

According to the police on the 5th, the Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency seized the mobile phone of Representative Choi, who is suspected of leaking personal information, in the morning and is attempting to search Representative Choi Kang-wook's office in the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. However, it was confirmed that Representative Choi's residence is not included in the scope of the search warrant.

Earlier, Kim Min-seok, an independent member of the Seoul Gangseo District Council, filed a complaint with the police last month accusing related parties of violating the Personal Information Protection Act, citing circumstances where personal information such as the resident registration abstract and real estate sales contract of Minister Han and his family were leaked.

The police believe that the resident registration abstract and real estate sales contract submitted by Minister Han's side to the National Assembly during his confirmation hearing in April last year were leaked. In this process, it was identified that a reporter A from MBC received Minister Han's personal information through the National Assembly, and there is evidence that reporter A passed this information to an external party.

Subsequently, the police conducted a search and seizure of reporter A on the 30th of last month and detected evidence that he received this material from Representative Choi, leading to the search and seizure on this day.