Prosecutor-General Kim Oh-soo has ordered inspectors at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office to look into a media report that the prosecution under his predecessor Yoon Seok-youl impelled an opposition party lawmaker to file formal complaints against ruling camp figures ahead of the general elections last year. 

The SPO on Thursday revealed the order made earlier in the day in a text message to reporters. 

The report, by online media outlet Newsverse, said a senior prosecutor at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, back in April of last year two weeks before the general elections, delivered an official complaint file to Kim Woong, who was running for a parliamentary seat as a nominee for the United Future Party(UFP), the precursor to the current main opposition People Power Party. 

The complaint accused the head of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation, Rhyu Si-min as well as Choi Kang-wook and Hwang Hee-seok, who were nominees for the minor liberal Open Democratic Party, which often works closely with the ruling Democratic party. 

The file claimed these three were behind media allegations that the wife of then prosecution chief Yoon was involved in stock price manipulation, and that this violated the Public Official Election Act and defamed Yoon and other senior prosecutors, including Kim Woong, who was working as a prosecutor before running in the elections. 

Prosecutor Son Jun-seong, identified by Newsverse as the one who delivered the file to Kim, denied the claims, calling the report “absurd.”