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| Investigators enter Ulsan Vice Mayor Song Byung-gi's office in Ulsan Metropolitan City headquarter in Ulsan, Friday, to carry out a seach and seizure on allegation related to Cheong Wa Dae's election meddling row. / Yonhap |
By Kim Jae-heun
The prosecution is widening its investigation into alleged election-meddling involving Cheong Wa Dae as it carried out a search and seizure on the office and residence of Ulsan Vice Mayor Song Byung-gi and summoned him for questioning, Friday.
Investigators from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office arrived at Ulsan City Hall at 8:50 a.m. to confiscate Song's computers and documents as evidence. They also searched his car. Song was not present at his office as he took the day off.
The search comes after Song was found to have tipped off a Cheong Wa Dae official regarding bribery allegations involving former Ulsan Mayor Kim Gi-hyeon's aides to help Song Cheol-ho win the local elections last year. Song is a close friend of President Moon Jae-in.
The case blew up into a massive investigation after Kim publicly claimed that the Ulsan Metropolitan Police Agency deliberately searched his office a few months ahead of the election, with the presidential office behind the move.
However, Song denied allegations in a press conference, Thursday, claiming it was not politically motivated.
Later in the day, the prosecutors questioned the vice mayor about the allegation based on the evidence seized during the search.
They called in a former Cheong Wa Dae official surnamed Moon, Thursday, to question him on how he had received the tip-off from the Ulsan vice mayor and what he did with it.
According to Cheong Wa Dae spokeswoman Ko Min-jung, Wednesday, Song Byung-gi had contacted Moon first to provide him with information related to alleged corruption of the former Ulsan mayor, which the official reported to his boss Baek Won-woo, former presidential secretary for civil affairs.
However, the Ulsan vice mayor denied the allegation that he contacted the Cheong Wa Dae official first and said it was the official Moon who asked him to study the "state trend" in the city hall and report to him.
Song Byung-gi held a press briefing Thursday to explain the suspicion that he had intended to affect the election by providing the tip-off about the former mayor.
In an prior interview with local media outlets, the vice mayor said a "regional organization" collecting public opinions contacted him in the second half of 2017 and asked several questions, to which he only gave answers that had already been revealed in the media.
Prosecutors are looking to see if the official Moon had actually contacted the Ulsan vice mayor first and if he had asked Song Byung-gi to provide tip-offs related to Kim.
Song Byung-gi is a well-known close aide of Song Cheol-ho, long before he joined the latter's campaign for Ulsan mayor during the local elections in June last year.
The vice mayor was then a director of the construction and transportation team at Ulsan City under Kim's administration. However, he resigned in 2015 and joined Song Cheol-ho's camp to play the role of policymaker.
