[Anchor]

A joint investigation team of prosecutors and police has conducted a search and seizure operation at the National Election Commission (NEC) to verify allegations regarding "leisurely" overseas business trips involving former NEC Chairperson Roh Tae-ak and other commission officials.

The investigation aims to determine whether the officials used the NEC budget to go on overseas trips for leisure rather than for work purposes.

Reporter Jeon Yeonnam has the story.

[Reporter]

Investigators from the joint investigation team entered the National Election Commission carrying blue boxes.

The search and seizure operation was launched in connection with operational misconduct at the NEC, including allegations that former NEC Chairperson Roh Tae-ak took his spouse on overseas trips.

The scope of the search included the chairperson's office and departments related to budget management. It is reported that the search warrant lists former Chairperson Roh and unnamed NEC employees as suspects on charges of professional embezzlement.

However, the residence of the former chairperson was excluded from the search.

During his tenure, the former chairperson traveled abroad three times with his spouse to countries including Australia and Denmark, with over 160 million won in budget funds spent on these trips.

As these trips were not recorded in official reports, the People Power Party raised suspicions of embezzlement and filed a complaint against the former chairperson.

[Roh Tae-ak / Former NEC Chairperson: Everything has been done exactly as it was before, and there have been no objections raised, nor were there any particular questions about it. I feel deeply sorry.]

NEC officials who traveled to vacation spots such as the Maldives and Kota Kinabalu between 2022 and last month, under the pretext of learning about election systems, have also been reported on charges of embezzlement.

The joint investigation team plans to summon NEC officials to verify the circumstances surrounding the overseas trips taken by the former chairperson, his spouse, and other employees, once the analysis of the seized materials, including office computers and related documents, is completed.

(Video reporting: Lee Sang-hak | Video editing: Kim Jong-mi)