Why Were Prosecutors' Documents Found on an Eight-Lane Road in Suwon? Actual Investigation Records Also Found
- Input
- 2026-09-24 05:24:53
- Updated
- 2026-09-24 05:24:53
[Financial News] Papers that appeared to be prosecution- or court-related case documents were found scattered across an eight-lane road in central Suwon. Police are tracing how they came to be there. Most were believed to be practice documents, but one document in the format of an actual investigation record and bearing the name of an investigative agency, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, was also found. Police plan to determine whether case materials may have made their way outside.
According to Suwon Yeongtong Police Station and other sources on the 24th, bundles of papers in the form of statements and criminal complaints, along with discarded paper, were found at around 11:10 a.m. the previous day on an eight-lane road in front of Suwon Convention Center in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon. A traffic patrol car first checked the scene, and police, believing the papers were trash that could obstruct traffic, asked the cleaning team at Yeongtong-gu Office to dispose of them.
When papers continued to blow across the road, officers from Gwanggyo Police Substation revisited the scene. Considering the possibility of a traffic accident, police collected about 10 sheets that remained on the road and checked their contents.
Many of the collected documents contained names that appeared unlikely to belong to real individuals. The suspect name fields listed names such as 'Kim Geomchal,' 'Kim Gap-dong,' and 'Lee Eul-seo,' while materials summarizing basic legal provisions were also mixed in.
Based on these findings, police are examining the possibility that the documents were practice materials used for entry into a criminal justice information system or for job training. However, one of the collected documents was confirmed to bear the names of investigative agencies, including the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, and to follow the format of an actual investigation record. This has made it necessary to determine whether only practice materials fell onto the road.
The total amount of paperwork scattered on the road has not yet been determined. Police secured about 10 sheets, but it is not known how many papers had already blown away from the scene or been moved elsewhere. Authorities will also check whether the documents that were not collected contained the personal information of people involved in actual cases or details of investigations.
If the documents are found to contain actual case materials, the management procedures of the institution or company that handled them could also become subject to investigation. If the papers contained personal information, authorities will need to determine whether the obligations to destroy the documents and manage them securely under the Personal Information Protection Act were properly followed.
Suwon District Court stated that it had not carried out a separate document-shredding operation that day. The court thereby distanced itself from the possibility that documents shredded there had subsequently made their way outside.
Police believe that most of the collected documents were prepared for study or practice. However, to determine whether any actual documents were leaked, they plan to identify how the papers came to fall onto the road and who handled them. They will also investigate whether the case may involve a violation of the Personal Information Protection Act.
[email protected] Jung Ji-woo Reporter