Prosecutors Conduct Additional Search and Seizure at Central, Jeonnam, and Chungbuk Election Commissions over 'Hiring Corruption' Allegations

The prosecution, investigating allegations of recruitment corruption at the National Election Commission, conducted additional raids on the 20th.

The Public Investigation Division 1 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Jong-hyun) carried out raids from the morning on the National Election Commission headquarters, Jeonnam Election Commission, and Chungbuk Election Commission in connection with the recruitment corruption case.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Seocho-dong, Seoul. Photo by Choi Seok-jin

A prosecution official stated, "Following the previous two raids, the investigation process confirmed the necessity for additional raids, so we obtained and executed search warrants from the court for some offices of the National Election Commission headquarters that were not included in the previous search targets."

Earlier, on September 22, the prosecution raided five Election Commission offices including the headquarters, Seoul, Daejeon, Jeonnam, and Chungbuk in relation to the recruitment corruption allegations. On the 12th of last month, they conducted raids on about ten locations including the residences of former Secretary-General Park Chan-jin and former Deputy Secretary Song Bong-seop. The Chungbuk and Jeonnam Election Commissions were included in the second raid targets.

The recruitment corruption allegations surfaced in May when it was revealed that the children of the Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary of the Election Commission were hired by the Commission. Former Secretary-General Park’s daughter, who had worked at Gwangju Nam-gu Office, was hired by the Election Commission last year, and former Deputy Secretary Song’s daughter, who worked as a public official in Boryeong, Chungnam, was hired by the Commission in 2018. Although the Election Commission stated that "there was no special treatment," both resigned 11 days after an internal investigation began.

In June, the Election Commission announced that its internal investigation identified 21 cases of preferential hiring involving senior executives, but a subsequent on-site investigation by the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission revealed a total of 353 suspected cases of recruitment corruption, including suspicions of 58 unfair hires in career recruitment from 2017 to May of this year.

Based on these investigation results, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission requested the prosecution to investigate officials involved in the improper recruitment and cases requiring clarification of family favoritism or illicit solicitations.