Former National Office of Investigation Chief Summoned as Suspect Over 'Jang Yoon-gi' Investigation Directive

[Anchor]

The prosecution investigating suspicions of covering up the Jang Yoon-gi case has summoned and questioned former National Office of Investigation Chief Park Sung-joo as a suspect. Park is accused of ordering separate investigations into a murder case and a sex crime case. The prosecution plans to indict Park and other police officials as early as this week.

This is an exclusive report by reporter Kim Deok-hyeon.

[Reporter]

The Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office summoned and questioned Park Sung-joo, the former top decision-maker for police investigations at the time of the Jang Yoon-gi incident, as a suspect last week.

Park faces charges including abuse of power, as he is accused of ordering different departments to separately investigate the high school girl murder case and the Vietnamese woman sexual assault case committed by Jang.

It is reported that the prosecution intensively questioned Park regarding the reasons why the jurisdiction over the cases was split and whether he received reports on related matters.

Previously, right after the Namyangju stalking murder case last March, the police reported to the presidential office that "upon receiving a stalking report, we will immediately accept the case regardless of jurisdiction."

However, on May 3, a Vietnamese woman reported stalking victimisation by Jang, but the police failed to log the case, ultimately leading to the murder of the high school girl.

The prosecution suspects that Park, concerned that the police's initial response failure—which prevented them from preemptively stopping Jang's murder—would come to light, ordered the separate assignment of cases to ensure the connection between the Vietnamese woman's case and the high school girl's murder would not be revealed.

Having also booked four other senior National Office of Investigation officials as suspects, including Chief Superintendent Jeong, a senior police officer serving as the Criminal Affairs Bureau Director who was in the chain of command for the Jang Yoon-gi investigation, the prosecution plans to indict Park and others as early as this week and wrap up the investigation.

(Video Editing: Shin Se-eun, Design: Cho Su-in)

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