Comprehensive Special Prosecutor raids Coast Guard and others over alleged involvement in insurrection

\r\n[The Financial News] The Second Comprehensive Special Counsel Team, led by Special Prosecutor Kwon Chang-young, has launched compulsory searches to investigate allegations that the Korea Coast Guard was involved in insurrection. The Special Prosecutor's Team for Insurrection, led by Special Prosecutor Cho Eun-seok, had previously concluded there was no wrongdoing after searches and summons-based questioning, but the case has now been fully reinvestigated.
The Comprehensive Special Counsel Team said on the 17th that, from around 10 a.m., it had dispatched prosecutors and investigators to the residence of former Coast Guard planning and coordination director Ahn Sung-sik and to the Korea Coast Guard headquarters to execute search warrants as part of its investigation into his alleged assistance in insurrection. The search targets at the KCG include the commissioner general's office, the deputy commissioner general's office, the Foreign Affairs Bureau and the Intelligence & Investigation Bureau.
Regarding the reason for the search, the Comprehensive Special Counsel Team said, "The Special Prosecutor's Team for Insurrection declined to indict the case, and the Comprehensive Special Counsel Team reopened it, confirmed the allegations through supplementary investigation, and is now carrying out compulsory searches."
The Comprehensive Special Counsel Team is investigating allegations that Ahn tried to join Yoon Suk Yeol's insurrection by arguing for officers to carry firearms and for investigators to be sent to the Joint Investigation Headquarters during a video conference of commanders nationwide shortly after the Dec. 3 martial law declaration.
Ahn has also been accused of being involved, starting in 2023, in adding a provision to the DCC's internal rulebook, the Martial Law Command Organization Plan, stating that Coast Guard personnel would be automatically dispatched once the Joint Investigation Headquarters was formed after a martial law declaration.
However, the Special Prosecutor's Team for Insurrection had already searched Ahn's residence, his home and the KCG headquarters in August last year over the same allegations, then questioned Ahn again as a suspect in aiding insurrection before concluding that there was no case.
At the time, the Special Prosecutor's Team for Insurrection reportedly found no evidence that Ahn had maintained continuous contact with Yoon Suk Yeol or former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun, or that he had conspired in advance over martial law. It also determined that he had no authority to order personnel deployments, and therefore saw no substance to the allegations.
It was also reported that no evidence was found showing that the Coast Guard had specifically carried out Ahn's remarks about carrying firearms or dispatching personnel to the Joint Investigation Headquarters.
Ahn, a junior alumnus of Yoon from Chungam High School, is said to have risen two ranks from superintendent general to senior superintendent general in just two years after being seconded to the presidential office under the previous administration. However, the Special Prosecutor's Team for Insurrection reportedly concluded that linking that promotion to his alleged involvement in the Dec. 3 martial law declaration would be a stretch.   
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kyu0705@fnnews.com Kim Dong-gyu Reporter