Lee Jong-seop Admits to Call with Yoon Before 'Private Chae Incident' Transfer Delay... "Remembering Concerns"

[Financial News] Lee Jong-seop, former Minister of National Defense, admitted to having a phone call with former President Yoon Seok-yeol just before instructing the police to delay the transfer of the Private Chae incident.
Lee's legal team announced on the 21st through a press release that "it is true that he received a call from former President Yoon, and he remembers expressing concerns about the military," and submitted a statement to the Special Investigation Team for Private Chae (Special Prosecutor Lee Myung-hyun).

The fact that the caller of '02-800-7070', which was pointed out as the starting point of external pressure on the investigation of the Private Chae incident, was former President Yoon, has been confirmed after about two years.
However, Lee's side stated that there was no 'VIP outrage' as some have claimed, and that it was a routine business call. They also argued that former President Yoon did not give specific instructions to exclude certain individuals from being suspects or to immediately stop the transfer regarding the Private Chae incident.

Lee received a call from '02-800-7070' on July 31, 2023, at 11:54 a.m. and talked for 2 minutes and 48 seconds. Immediately after hanging up, he called former Marine Corps Commander Kim Gye-hwan and instructed to cancel the National Assembly and media briefing related to the delay of the police transfer of the Private Chae incident, overturning his decision made on the 20th. Lee also instructed a few minutes later for former Division Commander Im to report to work as usual.
Former President Yoon reportedly expressed anger at a meeting in the presidential office at 11 a.m. that day after receiving a report on the initial investigation results of the Private Chae incident from former National Defense Secretary Lim Ki-hoon, saying, "If we punish a division commander for something like this, who would want to be a division commander?"


kyu0705@fnnews.com Dong-kyu Kim, Reporter