Prosecution transfers insurrection case against President Yoon to CIO

[Anchor]

The investigation into President Yoon, who is facing charges of insurrection, has been unified under the Corruption Investigation Office for High-Ranking Officials (CIO) as of today (12.18).

The prosecution has transferred the case regarding President Yoon's insurrection charges to the CIO.

With the investigation now unified, attention is focused on whether the pace of the president's summons investigation will accelerate.

This is Hyun Ye-seul reporting.

[Report]

Following the emergency martial law situation, numerous complaints were filed with various investigative agencies.

Investigations have targeted not only President Yoon Suk Yeol and former Defense Minister Kim Yong-hyun but also military officials, including Defense Intelligence Commander Yeo In-hyung. This has resulted in significant overlap among investigation targets, prompting calls for case transfers amid criticism of redundant investigations.

[Lee Jae-seung/CIO Deputy Chief/Dec. 9: "In cases where overlapping criminal investigations by other agencies are ongoing, the Chief of the CIO may request a transfer, and the relevant agency is required to comply with this request."]

Fifteen days after the declaration of emergency martial law, the investigation into President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is at the center of the case, has been unified under the CIO.

The Supreme Prosecutors' Office agreed to transfer the cases of President Yoon and former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min to the CIO.

In exchange, the CIO has withdrawn its request for the transfer of cases involving other suspects, excluding the two.

A CIO official stated that today's case transfer was only made regarding President Yoon and others, and that issues related to the investigation of additional suspects and data sharing will be discussed further.

With the leadership of the investigation into President Yoon now transferred to the CIO, it appears that the prosecution's deadline for President Yoon to appear by Saturday (12. 21) has effectively been nullified.

The summons investigation of President Yoon is expected to take place at the CIO in the future, and with the unification of the investigation under the CIO, President Yoon's side, which had cited overlapping investigations by the police and prosecution as a reason for non-compliance with the summons, has lost its justification for delaying attendance.

A few hours after the announcement of the transfer to the CIO, Park Se-hyun, head of the Special Investigation Headquarters of the prosecution, visited the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

There were speculations that he went to protest against the case transfer, but the Supreme Prosecutors' Office dismissed this, stating that they discussed the direction of the investigation after the transfer with Director Park.

This is KBS News Hyun Ye-seul.