Newstapa to Release Original 'Kim Man-bae and Shin Hak-rim Conversation Recording' Today at 5 PM... "We Will Let Citizens Judge"

72-Minute Unedited Audio File Released
Highlighting Suspicions Involving Choi Soon-sil, Park Young-soo Special Prosecutor, and Others

Three days before the last presidential election, NewsTapa, which raised suspicions about President Yoon Seok-yeol's alleged cover-up of the Busan Savings Bank case by releasing a recorded conversation between Hwacheon Daeyu major shareholder Kim Man-bae and former Press Union chairman Shin Hak-rim, will release the entire original recording file of the two controversial individuals without any edits on the 7th.

On the 5th, NewsTapa issued a second statement apologizing for the fact that there had been a financial transaction involving hundreds of millions of won between the two and announced that it would "form a fact-finding committee including external investigators." NewsTapa's swift move to release the original file, stating it would "submit to the judgment of the citizens," appears to be due to the rapid progress of the prosecution's investigation into the 'false interview tip-off' allegations, the portal company Naver, which has a content partnership (CP) with NewsTapa, demanding explanations, and the Korea Communications Standards Commission deciding to conduct an emergency review of broadcasts citing NewsTapa's interview, among other urgent developments.

A screenshot from the video titled [Kim Man-bae Voice File] reported by Newstapa on March 22 last year, "Resolving the Busan Savings Bank Case through Park Young-soo and Yoon Seok-yeol."

NewsTapa announced through a press release titled "NewsTapa to release the entire 72-minute without edits" distributed to the media the previous day that it would release the recording file at 5 p.m. that day.

NewsTapa stated, "In a situation where the prosecution, the presidential office, and the government and ruling party are raising claims such as 'false interview' and 'interference in the presidential election' regarding NewsTapa's report on Kim Man-bae's voice file related to the Daejang-dong case just before the last presidential election, we will release the entire original 72-minute at 5 p.m. on the 7th without any edits."

NewsTapa also said, "In the broadcast airing at the same time, we will first, as stated in the statement released on the 5th, once again apologize to the citizens and viewers for the hundreds of millions of won exchanged between Kim Man-bae, who led the Daejang-dong development project, and former NewsTapa specialist Shin Hak-rim, regardless of the reasons."

It added, "Then, we will thoroughly refute the claims raised simultaneously by the prosecution, the presidential office, the government, the ruling party, and conservative media?that is, the claim that 'former specialist Shin Hak-rim conspired with Kim Man-bae, recorded Kim's lies regarding suspicions about then-candidate Yoon Seok-yeol under the guise of conversation, and reported it through NewsTapa'?based on the timing of the recorded conversation, the timing of Yoon Seok-yeol's confirmation as the People Power Party presidential candidate, and key contents of the recording file."

NewsTapa stated, "In particular, we will verify whether the 'allegation of prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol's cover-up of the Busan Savings Bank investigation,' directly revealed by Kim Man-bae, is truly baseless 'fake news' as claimed by the presidential office and the ruling party, by compiling NewsTapa's investigative results so far and examining the truth of various other suspicions contained in the 72-minute recording file for the first time, thereby assessing the possibility that Kim's claims are false."

It continued, "The broadcast will also provide a detailed rebuttal to the one-sided claims by the prosecution, the presidential office, the government, the ruling party, and conservative media that 'NewsTapa had secured the recording file early on but concealed it and reported it three days before the presidential election to influence the election.'"

In the Q&A attached to the press release regarding the full release of the , NewsTapa said, "Since the prosecution raided Shin Hak-rim's residence last week, some media, the ruling party, the Korea Communications Commission, the Korea Communications Standards Commission, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Seoul City, and even the presidential office have launched a massive attack on NewsTapa," adding, "They are making unilateral claims that Kim Man-bae conspired with Shin Hak-rim to conduct a false interview and reported it through NewsTapa to interfere in the presidential election."

It added, "At the time of the report in March 2022, the 72-minute contained a large amount of personal information unrelated to the case, so we judged it inappropriate to release the entire file. However, now that various speculations, suspicions, unfair political attacks, and media suppression are emerging around the , NewsTapa has decided to release the entire audio file so that citizens can directly judge whether this recording sounds like a premeditated false interview intended to interfere in the presidential election."

NewsTapa argued, "The recorded conversation between the two took place on September 15, 2021, when the eight candidates for the People Power Party's presidential primary were decided, and Yoon Seok-yeol was confirmed as the presidential candidate 50 days later on November 5, 2021, so suspicion that this was a false interview targeting a specific candidate is unreasonable."

It continued, "Above all, if you listen to the entire Kim Man-bae voice file to be released tomorrow, you will be able to judge for yourself that it cannot be considered a premeditated false interview to interfere in the presidential election. It is merely a secretly recorded private conversation that cannot even be called an 'interview.'"

NewsTapa acknowledged that the report at the time was edited in a way that could cause misunderstanding, such as implying that President Yoon Seok-yeol personally served coffee to Jo Woo-hyung, who appeared before the prosecution when Yoon was head of the Central Investigation Division 2 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

NewsTapa stated, "However, the parts of the recording where Kim Man-bae says, 'Yoon Seok-yeol said, "Are you Jo Woo-hyung?"...' and the part citing lawyer Nam Wook's statement that 'Jo Woo-hyung appeared before the prosecution, was investigated twice, and it was said that he served coffee to the chief prosecutor Jo Woo-hyung' were somewhat unclear," adding, "But it is clear that this is unrelated to the overall intent of the report."

It added, "The government and ruling party are using this part as a pretext to claim falsely that NewsTapa reported that Yoon Seok-yeol served coffee to interfere in the presidential election," and said, "The core issue is not whether prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol personally served coffee to Jo Woo-hyung or met him directly, but why the Jo Woo-hyung case was not investigated, and why the case, which was not prosecuted by the Central Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in 2011, was prosecuted by the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office in 2015."

NewsTapa claimed that the reason the Yoon Seok-yeol administration is attacking NewsTapa is because of its critical reports on the prosecution and the government ruling party.

NewsTapa said, "Since 2017, NewsTapa has focused on reporting the abuse of prosecutorial power, one of the sacred cows of our society. As prosecutorial power has grown and eventually produced a prosecutor-turned-president as the People Power Party candidate, NewsTapa's critical reports on the prosecution have often been interpreted as criticism of the People Power Party or the current government and ruling party," adding, "This is likely why the current government and ruling party see NewsTapa as a thorn in their side."

On September 15, 2021, Kim met with Shin and gave an interview claiming that "President Yoon Seok-yeol, when he was head of the Central Investigation Division 2 at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in 2011, met Jo Woo-hyung, a broker for Daejang-dong loans, during the Busan Savings Bank case investigation, had the responsible prosecutor serve coffee, and covered up the case." The interview recording file was reported by NewsTapa, where Shin served as an advisory committee member, three days before the presidential election on March 6 last year. Shin served as a NewsTapa specialist from May 2018 to December 2022.

The NewsTapa report at the time included ▲ allegations that then-People Power Party presidential candidate Yoon Seok-yeol covered up the Busan Savings Bank case and ▲ content that then-Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, as mayor of Seongnam, not only did not give special favors to private developers in Daejang-dong but actually imposed various disadvantages. Since the report raised suspicions of corruption during Yoon's time as a prosecutor just three days before the election and refuted the possibility of Lee's involvement in the Daejang-dong corruption, it was a report that could have significantly influenced the election outcome.