“Some aspects of the investigation into Han Dong-hoon’s daughter don’t meet public expectations,” Seoul Central District Prosecution Office chief responds at parliamentary audit

[Financial News] On the 19th, Park Cheol-woo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecution Office, said in response to a question about fairness in prosecutors’ investigations into the families of former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon: “There were aspects that were quite difficult to understand from the standpoint of the public’s legal sensibilities and expectations.”

Park gave this response during that day’s parliamentary audit of the Seoul Metropolitan Prosecution Office and other agencies by the National Assembly’s Legislation and Judiciary Committee, after Kim Dong-a of the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) compared investigations into former Minister Cho’s family and lawmaker Han and raised suspicions of a biased investigation by prosecutors.
Kim referred to the large-scale search and seizure operations and separate investigations that prosecutors conducted when they investigated former Minister Cho’s family. He said prosecutors searched roughly 30 locations ahead of Cho’s confirmation hearing, indicted his wife, former Dongyang University professor Chung Kyung-sim, on the day of the hearing, and then carried out a lengthy search of their home.
Kim also mentioned that prosecutors had received assistance from US law enforcement authorities while investigating allegations that former Minister Cho and his wife had taken an online quiz for their son at an American university. “Prosecutors requested investigative assistance from the US over a single quiz and even brought in the FBI,” Kim said, adding that they “conducted an exhaustive investigation.”
He argued, by contrast, that prosecutors had not acted proactively in investigating allegations involving lawmaker Han. “This parliamentary audit confirmed that the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office did not investigate the case involving alleged admissions fraud by Han Dong-hoon’s daughter at all,” Kim said. “Do you consider the investigation into lawmaker Han to have been properly conducted? Isn’t this why they’ve been called political prosecutors?” he asked pointedly.
Park responded, “I think there are aspects that are quite difficult to understand from the standpoint of the public’s legal sensibilities and expectations.”

It recently emerged that in November 2022, while Han was under investigation over allegations that his daughter had fabricated credentials, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Division asked the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office to seek mutual legal assistance in criminal matters to obtain related evidence overseas, but prosecutors blocked the request.
Han, his wife and their daughter were reported to police on suspicion of obstruction of business and obstruction of the execution of official duties through deception, among other offenses, but police decided not to refer the case to prosecutors in December the following year.
During that day’s parliamentary audit, lawmakers from the ruling bloc, in particular, continued to criticize prosecutors for bringing controversy on themselves in the past by handling both investigations and indictments, including over targeted and excessive investigations and violations of political neutrality.
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