Vice Justice Minister Lee Yong-gu, who is under investigation for allegedly assaulting a taxi driver last November, denied paying the driver to delete the black box footage.

In a statement on Thursday, Lee said he met with the driver two days after the incident to apologize and paid him ten million won in settlement money.

Admitting that he had asked the driver to delete the video sent through KakaoTalk after the settlement, which the driver rejected, Lee denied that he asked for the original video to be deleted and that he paid a larger settlement to get it removed.

This comes after police booked the driver on Wednesday on charges of destroying evidence.

The police are also looking to file charges of instigating destruction of evidence against Lee and send the case to the prosecution with the recommendation for indictment.

Meanwhile, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, which is also investigating the incident, is soon expected to indict Lee on charges of assaulting a driver under special laws that apply additional punishment for specific crimes.