Cho Taeyong: "Hong Jangwon was dismissed after requesting personnel favors seven times from Park Jiwon or Park Seonwon"

Cho Tae-yong, Director of the National Intelligence Service, testified that "Hong Jang-won, former 1st Deputy Director of the NIS, made seven personnel requests to opposition party lawmakers."

Cho Tae-yong, Director of the National Intelligence Service, is drinking water while attending the National Assembly Intelligence Committee's audit of the National Intelligence Service held at the NIS in Naegok-dong, Seoul, on the 29th. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

On the morning of the 13th, attending as a witness at the 8th hearing of President Yoon Suk-yeol's impeachment trial, Director Cho responded to the question from President Yoon's side about the reason for dismissing former Deputy Director Hong by saying, "It is not appropriate to go into detail here, but I will mention one thing that is officially recorded."

Director Cho explained, "Last August to September, at the National Assembly Intelligence Committee, an opposition party lawmaker who had been with the NIS during the previous administration pointed to former Deputy Director Hong and said, 'Didn’t he make seven personnel requests through a powerful person?' I was surprised," adding, "Seeing that, I began to think about how to handle former Deputy Director Hong’s political neutrality."

When asked, "Who is the powerful person? The opposition party lawmakers from the previous administration’s NIS are Park Seon-won and Park Ji-won, is that correct?" he replied, "Yes." He added, "It’s a bit awkward to mention names, but since this was said during the meeting, I believe there is a transcript."

He also directly refuted the memo of the "arrest list" that former Deputy Director Hong testified about. Earlier, Hong appeared as a witness at the Constitutional Court and stated that he received arrest orders for key figures from the President and heard the list of targets from former Commander of the Defense Counterintelligence Command, Yeo In-hyung.

Director Cho said, "Upon verifying the facts regarding the arrest team list, two things were different. First, on December 3rd last year, when Hong said he hastily wrote the memo in front of the Director’s official residence at 11:06 p.m., he was not there but in his office at the headquarters," and added, "Second, the memo was written by an aide, and there are actually four versions: the original, one rewritten, and one with additions by former Deputy Director Hong."

He further claimed, "Former Deputy Director Hong said it was an important matter, but when I looked into it, I explained it specifically last Tuesday, and the core content was different from the facts."