Prosecutors Summon Bong Ji-wook, Newstapa Reporter, Over 'Yoon Seok-yeol Coffee' Report

The prosecution investigating allegations of false reporting related to the Daejang-dong development corruption scandal, which was reported just before the 2022 presidential election, has summoned Bong Ji-wook, a former JTBC reporter (currently a Newstapa reporter) who reported the so-called ‘Yoon Seok-yeol coffee’ article.

Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, Seocho-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

According to the legal community on the 28th, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office’s Special Investigation Team on ‘Election Interference and Public Opinion Manipulation’ (led by Kang Baek-shin, Head of the Anti-Corruption Investigation Division 1) summoned reporter Bong as a suspect and is currently investigating him.

Reporter Bong is accused of deliberately omitting the testimony of Jo Woo-hyung, a Daejang-dong loan broker who denied allegations, while raising suspicions about President Yoon Seok-yeol’s ‘cover-up of the Busan Savings Bank investigation’ in a report published in February 2022 ahead of the presidential election.

Bong cited the prosecution’s interrogation record of Nam Wook, a private developer involved in Daejang-dong, reporting that “In February 2011, when Mr. Jo underwent his second investigation by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office regarding the Busan Savings Bank case, the lead prosecutor made coffee for him, and at that time, the lead prosecutor was Yoon Seok-yeol, head of the Central Investigation Division 2.”

Before appearing at the prosecution, Bong told reporters, “This case is a pre-planned election investigation by the prosecution,” adding, “The prosecution, having failed to find the ‘that person’ in Daejang-dong, has opened the so-called ‘prosecutorial cage era’ by investigating and pressuring journalists who verified the presidential candidates’ qualifications, intimidating them.”

Regarding how he obtained Nam’s prosecution interrogation record, which was the basis for the coffee report, he said, “The prosecution claims that it was received from the Democratic Party, that it was received to help Lee Jae-myung (the party leader), and that it was deliberately distorted, but I deny those claims.”

When asked whether he received materials related to the Busan Savings Bank case from the Democratic Party side, he replied, “Many materials were distributed to reporters by various camps to create a favorable position for their candidates. These were legitimate materials obtained by lawmakers requesting them from the Financial Supervisory Service or the Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation, and they were provided not only to us but also to various media outlets.”

Additionally, Bong claimed that when the prosecution searched his residence, they conducted an excessive and illegal search by forcibly unlocking his mobile phone without presenting a warrant.