MINISTRIES RAIDED IN ‘BLACK LIST’ PROBE

[Anchor Lead]

Prosecutors have raided the unification and science ministries over allegations the Moon Jae-in administration pressured the chiefs of state agencies appointed by the Park Geun-hye administration to resign. The so-called black list probe is expanding to a number of ministries. The probe into the trade ministry is almost complete.

[Pkg]

Prosecutors raided the Ministry of Unification as well as the Ministry of Science and ICT along with their affiliated organs in relation to the black list scandal. They are being investigated by the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office, which is also investigating the trade ministry. The prosecutors say the probe covers all these cases at once because they are believed to be similar in nature and timeline. A compulsory investigation was launched three years after the case was reported in 2019 by the Liberty Korea Party, currently known as the People Power Party. The bill of indictment says former Korea Hana Foundation Director Sohn Kwang-ju was pressured by then-Unification Minister Cho Myoung-gyon to step down in 2017 and resigned with just one year left before his tenure ended. Sohn was already interrogated in 2019 as a witness.

[Soundbite] Sohn Kwang-ju(Former Director of Korea Hana Foundation (July 27)) : "I got a call from the minister. He told me to quit before the new Nat’l Assembly began."

The heads of 12 other state agencies affiliated with the Ministry of Science and ICT who were appointed by the Park Geun-hye administration also resigned prematurely because the Moon government pushed them to do so. There is also an allegation that an audit was launched on the Ministry after the chief of the Korea Institute of Science & Technology Evaluation and Planning rejected the demand to step down at the time. With the launch of compulsory investigations into various ministries including the Ministry of Environment as well as the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, the probe into the accusation that the Moon administration pressured the heads of state organs to resign could expand further.