May Police Referral Cases... Concluded as 'Insufficient Evidence'
Jeong Eui-yong, Lee Sang-cheol, Lee Jong-hyeop, and Others Return Records to Police
The Public Investigation Division 3 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Tae-hoon) decided on the 27th not to prosecute the case in which former Senior Administrative Officer of the Blue House National Security Office Choi Yong-seon was sent to prosecution on charges of abusing his authority to obtain a copy of the investigation records of the Military Cyber Command's comment case from a Ministry of National Defense investigation headquarters official.
The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office stated, "After the case was sent, we thoroughly reviewed the evidence and conducted supplementary investigations including questioning related parties, but there was insufficient evidence to recognize the charges against former Administrative Officer Choi, so we decided not to prosecute."
It added, "Regarding former Blue House National Security Office Chief Jeong Eui-yong, former First Deputy Director Lee Sang-cheol, former Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters Director Lee Jong-hyeop, and former Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters Investigation Team Leader Lee Tae-myeong, who were also accused alongside former Administrative Officer Choi but were not sent to prosecution by the police, we did not find the police's decision not to prosecute to be unjust and thus returned the records."
Former Administrative Officer Choi is accused of visiting the Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters in August 2017, meeting with officials from the Military Cyber Command political comment case investigation team, and receiving a copy of related investigation records from an investigation headquarters official.
Previously, the military authorities investigated the Cyber Command comment manipulation allegations between 2013 and 2014, but concluded the investigation by indicting former Cyber Command commanders Yeon Je-wook and Ok Do-kyung, and former Psychological Warfare Unit leader military official Lee Mo, excluding then-Minister of National Defense Kim Kwan-jin.
However, suspicions later arose that the Cyber Command reported the comment manipulation to the military leadership including former Minister Kim and the Blue House, prompting the Ministry of National Defense to form a Task Force (TF) in September 2017 for a full reinvestigation of the Cyber Command comment manipulation allegations.
Civil groups such as the "Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea" (Hanbyun) claimed that the reinvestigation accelerated after former Administrative Officer Choi visited the Ministry of National Defense Investigation Headquarters and filed a complaint against him and others with the police. The police sent former Administrative Officer Choi's case to the prosecution in May.
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