NEWS BRIEF

[Anchor Lead]

A prosecutors’ investigation team looking into the Daejang-dong development controversy carried out another raid on Seongnam City Hall Monday morning. During today’s raid, investigators secured city officials’ e-mails, which they requested in a previous operation conducted last Friday. With the seized materials, prosecutors will focus on finding whether or not business favors were provided in return for bribes in the process of developing new towns in Daejang-dong and Wirye.
Democratic Party Chairman Song Young-gil says it would be better for prosecutors to draw a conclusion from their investigation into the Daejang-dong scandal within December before campaigning for next year’s presidential election begins in full swing. In a radio interview on Monday, the ruling party head opposed the main opposition People Power Party’s proposal to introduce a special prosecutor team for the controversy. He stressed it would be undesirable to let prosecutors affect the election throughout the campaigning period and it is important to speed up the current probe and reach a conclusion before the election season.
The Justice Party’s head says it looks as if prosecutors are trying to protect the presidential candidate of the ruling party, although they are supposed to find the truth behind the Daejang-dong development controversy through their investigation. In a party meeting held on Monday, Yeo Yeong-gug said prosecutors are failing to meet the public demand that they dispel all allegations surrounding the scandal ahead of the presidential election. Yeo warned that the prosecution will eventually have to see a special prosecutor team take over their task if the current situation goes uncorrected.