[Issue Plus] 'Suspicious of intervening in the nomination' Myung Tae-kyun appears at the prosecution...Can you tell the truth?

■ Host: Lee Yeo-jin, anchor Jang Won-seok
■ Starring: Attorney Kim Sung-soo

* The text below may differ from the actual broadcast content, so please check the broadcast for more accurate information. Please specify [YTN News PLUS] when quoting.

[Anchor]
Myung Tae-kyun, a key figure in the alleged intervention of the nomination, was summoned to the prosecution today. Since the statements between the suspects are different for each major issue, we are interested in whether the facts can be properly covered. Let's point out the related information with lawyer Kim Sung-soo. Welcome.

I went in at about 9:40 this morning and came out of the prosecution a little while ago. What did we talk about?

[Kim Sung-soo]
First of all, several charges are mentioned that Myung Tae-kyun is facing, but in today's investigation, the main issue is probably the starting point of this case, and isn't there a charge of violating the Political Fund Act? Regarding former lawmaker Kim Young-sun, there was a part where the Gyeongnam Election Commission filed a complaint saying that the flow of money was strange. He was in charge of accounting for the accusation and investigated five people at the time, including Myung Tae-kyun and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun. So, starting with this, there is a part where the facts have been increasingly understood, so I think this was the main issue of the investigation, and isn't there a suspicion that 90 million won was received in exchange for helping the nomination?

In return for former lawmaker Kim Young-sun's nomination for the by-election at the time. If that's right, it could be an issue on the Political Fund Act and the Public Official Election Act, so it seems that the facts on this part have been identified as the main issue. Also, since suspicions of manipulation of opinion polls and Changwon National Industrial Complex are mentioned, we need to see if this was mentioned in today's investigation or whether it was a more important issue to understand other facts. The investigation itself may now have secured statements from other suspects or reference witnesses.

Then, you'll be able to see the credibility of the facts while contrasting with this, and isn't there a lot of recordings that have been released in the media? As a result, the prosecution also sought the unity between such recording and today's suspect and Myung Tae-kyun's statement, and which one could be more reliable. If there are other parts, I think they will additionally figure out which parts of the evidence are there.

[Anchor]
There are so many things to deal with, so I went in this morning, finished the investigation at around 4 p.m. and was investigated for about 2 hours, and came out at around 6 a.m. Do you think you had enough time?

[Kim Sung-soo]
There are too many disputes and it's not very complicated. And isn't it a long period? Then, since it takes a long time, it seems that these deposits are now withdrawn and even these parts have been identified through warrants, so you have to ask about those parts one by one. On this day, there are issues related to the nomination of candidates regarding the details of deposit and withdrawal, what is this and what is this about?

There can be a lot of questions about one fact, and isn't it very long to receive an answer? Then, in order to check all the issues in this part, it is likely that today alone was not enough, so I will proceed with additional investigations, and I will proceed with the investigation again now.

[Anchor]
In fact, Kang Hye-kyung, who exposed suspicions of nomination intervention on the day before yesterday, attended the prosecution for the eighth time and came out after 13 hours of investigation, but Myung Tae-kyun's health was a relatively short time today.

[Kim Sung-soo]
First of all, according to the report, if your health is a little difficult in the middle of the investigation, you can reschedule the investigation. As a result, I think that the investigation agency should re-investigate the case as I said, because it seems that the issue is not over and the issue is not confirmed. Because there are many issues that need to be asked, and if you haven't received all the statements about that, of course, you should be investigated again. As a result, additional investigations are expected to take place, and it is necessary to see how far the issue has progressed in today's investigation.

[Anchor]
Because there is so much to deal with, the prosecution has added four more prosecutors to the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office to look into this. Can we avoid the controversy over the late investigation?

[Kim Sung-soo]
The controversy over the belated investigation of the case itself was filed in December by the Gyeongnam Election Commission. And there are areas where there seems to be no progress until September, so there was a story that said, "Isn't the investigation too late?" As you said now, an additional prosecutor has been added recently, and now there are 11 investigation teams.

Since it is composed of such a structure that can be seen as an investigation team, the part that can be mentioned about the late investigation is that the prosecutor was put in as quickly as possible to secure as much facts as possible and to clarify the results of the investigation, so if the prosecutor checks more, it will eventually help analyze the data.

Of course, investigators will help you in the data analysis, but prosecutors will also carefully review it and if there is a warrant or something like this, they can review it again, so they are trying to comprehensively grasp the facts about various customs.

[Anchor]
It is said that the deputy prosecutor will be in charge of the investigation, but it is unusual for the deputy prosecutor to be dispatched to the case of the district prosecutor's office.

[Kim Sung-soo]
The dispatch of a deputy prosecutor itself can be seen as unusual, as you said, so I think it shows that there are many interests in this case itself.

[Anchor]
And how will the press conference of the president of Yoon Suk Yeol affect Myung Tae-kyun yesterday? I was wondering what kind of reaction Myung Tae-kyun would give, but he posted an apology on social media yesterday. What kind of intentions do you have?

[Kim Sung-soo]
It's probably a really unpredictable part of that. Of course, you're the only one who knows. As you may only know, what kind of reaction is there to President Yoon Suk Yeol's statement itself, or wasn't there a prosecution investigation today? As a result, it is possible to speculate about whether there was a change in attitude before the investigation, but only you will know what the intention was, and if you try to interpret it, I think we can review it after further understanding the facts.

[Anchor]
Myung Tae-kyun said this while attending the prosecution earlier. I have never made a revelation. And the lawyer said the same thing. I have never revealed it, and I will never reveal it forever. How can I say it like this when I said it like this?

[Kim Sung-soo]
There must be various interpretations of the definition of the disclosure, and there seems to be a part that asked whether there was a direct statement of the facts, so I think there is no direct statement of the facts. However, don't we have a lot of data to interpret this?

So through those parts, I think that's what we have to interpret a little bit about whether this statement is right or wrong.

[Anchor]
When asked in front of reporters if he admitted to receiving money in return for nominations, Myung Tae-kyun said, "If you look at the flow of money, you can solve the case. What do you think this meant?

[Kim Sung-soo]
First of all, I think he made a statement to the effect that he did not receive any money in his name, and now that we are looking at the facts from the report, we are only able to understand the details, but rather than depositing something in his or her account, it is a little speculated that it was paid through such parts as the Future Korea Research Institute, which is considered to be actually owned.

Therefore, it means that you have to look at the flow of money, and the flow of money may actually show objective facts, so if your statement is correct, it seems that you can trust your statement more. Since we can't figure out what happened to this fact with the account at the moment, I think the investigative agency will judge whether it is reliable.

[Anchor]
Didn't Kang Hye-kyung reveal that former lawmaker Kim Young-sun gave half of his salary because Myung Tae-kyun contributed to the nomination of former lawmaker Kim Young-sun?

[Kim Sung-soo]
That's right. That part can be seen as related to the part that the NEC filed a complaint against. Currently, former lawmaker Kim Young-sun says that Kang Hye-kyung took criminal action in this part because she appears to be suspected of fraud, embezzlement, or so on.

As a result, there is some flow of money, whether the account was transferred or withdrawn from the account, but since the facts are stated differently, there are also recordings and messages because the statements and recordings of the parties appear to be secured in various ways.

By integrating all these parts, we will eventually see which statement can be trusted, and if there is a separate factual relationship, if there is an important reference, I think the investigation will be conducted considering these parts.

[Anchor]
And there are conflicting arguments over whether Myung Tae-kyun was also involved in the selection of Changwon National Industrial Complex. Kang He-kyung and Myung Tae-kyun, former accounting manager of Kim Young-sun, said that they proposed the policy. How did you see this?

[Kim Sung-soo]
So, I think the issue can be whether the intervention itself is illegal in the selection of the Changwon National Industrial Complex. It seems that former lawmaker Kim Young-sun and Myung Tae-kyun are making claims to the effect that they came up with the idea and whether the adoption of the idea itself can be considered illegal.

Therefore, if there was an illegal purpose or if it was correct that the facts were intervened through illegal procedures, we would examine what crimes could be criminally, but if it was not, there could be things that could not be a crime. Once the facts are clearly understood, we can review the name of the crime, and the facts themselves seem to be conflicting here, so the investigation seems to be inevitable.

[Anchor]
The positions of the two sides are very mixed right now. Kang Hye-kyung even threatened and decorated it all, and Myung Tae-kyun's lawyer even criticized Kang Hye-kyung, the second Yoon Ji-oh, in such a strong tone that she lied about everything except breathing. Can cross-examination take place?

[Kim Sung-soo]
You said that this statement is conflicting now, but it can be seen as two people who are contradicting each other. If so, I think we can review the cross-examination. The reason for cross-examination itself is that if you receive statements from two people at the same time when their statements are mixed, it can lead to facts that can lead to a certain part of the investigation process or which one is more truthful.

Therefore, cross-examination can also be reviewed, and in the end, whether it is profitable will be the most important. Even if we do cross-examination, if we say that we will only say the same thing anyway, the cross-examination will not take place, and if there is a real benefit to that, I think the investigative agency will also review the cross-examination.

[Anchor]
Kang Hye-kyung also said that the president and his wife were involved in the nomination of former lawmaker Kim, so shouldn't we investigate the president and his wife? But do you think there's a real possibility of that?

[Kim Sung-soo]
The president and his wife intervened in the nomination process. This is what comes out, but if so, there is a part that could be an issue of violating the neutrality obligation under the Public Official Election Act, and if you do this at any cost, you can consider bribery or something like this.

However, if there is a fact of suspicion or a crime after reviewing this part, we will be able to review the summons investigation. If so, in the case of Mrs. Kim, have you been investigated as a suspect in other cases? Therefore, can the spouse of the president be subject to a suspect investigation and can the incumbent president be investigated as a suspect or a reference? This can also be a legal issue. Perhaps the investigation itself can be legally possible.

However, in the case of the president, Article 84 of the Constitution has the privilege to remove fluoride. So even if we investigate, even if we are guilty, it can be an additional issue because we cannot prosecute ourselves, but we need to wait and see because the current facts themselves are not clearly revealed or talked about.

[Anchor]
Today, the Democratic Party of Korea released a recording saying that Myung Tae-kyun was found to have intervened before the presidential office. How did you see this part?

[Kim Sung-soo]
The recording of that part seems to have been released, but how should we look at this recording itself? Isn't this one person's words? That's why we need to check whether this person's words fit the actual facts by securing something else. One person says that when someone talks to another person, I said A, but whether this A is true or not is necessary to find out additional facts in order to proceed with a criminal case. That's why we have to look at this, and if there is any previous involvement in this point, if it is illegal, the investigation can proceed as a criminal case, but if it is not illegal, it cannot be a criminal issue, so we need to see if it can be a criminal issue.

[Anchor]
It is known that the prosecution has yet to secure a cell phone containing the recording or recording, even though the prosecution has summoned Myung? But Myung keeps changing his words now. It was said that it was buried in my father's oxygen, but my father has no oxygen because he put on makeup. And I said, "I'm going to start a fire," and I said, "I'm not at all," and the words keep changing, so how do you see it? I'm not going to get rid of this recording as easily as the phone said it was my lawyer. There were a lot of analyses like this.

[Kim Sung-soo]
I received and checked Myung Tae-kyun's cell phone. But it was a new phone, so in the end, it was a mobile phone that had no practical benefit, and as you said about the mobile phone you used in the past, there was an issue like that. If you don't submit it even though you have it, and this seems to be an intention to hide any criminal charges, this could be a reason for arrest when the prosecution requests an arrest warrant.

Therefore, if you look at any facts about that and say that this is a fact that can be seen as hiding it, it can be a starting point for the prosecution to review such things as requesting a warrant, so I think the prosecution will first grasp the credibility of the statement.

[Anchor]
Myung Taekyun said this. If I'm arrested, I'll be impeached within a month. How much do you think there's a possibility of arrest when you've said this?

[Kim Sung-soo]
I think we can see that part once the name of the crime or the facts are understood after the warrant is requested.
And as to whether an arrest warrant is issued, there should be a considerable explanation for the crime charge, and this part should be proved, such as the fear of escape and the destruction of evidence. I think we need to see if the explanation of the crime charge has been considerable.

And once there is, he mentioned about the cell phone as to whether there is a concern about destroying evidence. As to whether there is a possibility that the court can hide evidence on the crime with this alone, there are other parts that need to be viewed differently, so I think we can review this again once a warrant is requested.

[Anchor]
Let's also look at the next topic. The identity of the suspect in the case of the abandonment of the body damaged by the Bukhangang River was decided to be disclosed, but it was postponed. Can this be deferred if the suspect refuses?

[Kim Sung-soo]
There is a serious crime disclosure law. If you look at it, it can be seen that Article 4, Paragraph 7 stipulates that the grace period must be given from the notification date for at least five days, but if this party has no objection, it can be disclosed immediately.

However, it seems that they raised an objection. The decision was made on the 7th, but now that I'm raising an objection, isn't there a problem that you have to give a grace period of more than 5 days? However, in this situation, as reported now, I applied for administrative litigation and suspension of execution on this part. I applied for a suspension of execution of the disclosure.

How you can see this suspension is that I'm going to file a lawsuit and I'm going to file a lawsuit about whether the decision to disclose this part is justified, but doesn't the lawsuit itself take a long time? However, if it is disclosed during the lawsuit, the actual benefit of the lawsuit will eventually be lost, so please suspend the execution until the lawsuit is over, and the disclosure should be suspended.

The issue can be whether or not the suspension of execution is accepted, and this should be watched as the court seems to decide quickly.

[Anchor]
Did this happen? Was there a time when an application for provisional injunction was accepted in this way?

[Kim Sung-soo]
In the past, there was a case in which a provisional injunction was accepted for one party at the time of the nth room incident. Then, the lawsuit was judged, and in the first trial, the government won the case, which became an issue. I understand that the appeal is in progress, and this part, related to sex crimes, is being disclosed at the appeal stage. As we are reviewing whether the clause is unconstitutional, I understand that no decision has been made on the main lawsuit.

[Anchor]
Then, is there a possibility that the information will be released before confirmation?

[Kim Sung-soo]
Disposition is the most important thing when it comes to finalizing the lawsuit. If the provisional injunction decision is dismissed, it can proceed according to the procedure, so if so, I think it is highly likely to be disclosed.

[Anchor]
The citation will be decided on the 11th, so how do you see it?

[Kim Sung-soo]
It seems that there will be various issues about whether to cite it or not, but if the committee itself was held on the 7th, there was a violation of the legality of the process, or did not give an opportunity to state its opinion, or there was a problem with the notice or this, or if there is a part that cannot be explained about the crime, there is a possibility of citing the suspension because it has the benefit of the suspension, but if there is none, it can be dismissed, so this fact is important. I think this will be an issue as to whether there was a procedural problem.

[Anchor]
I think this case will be handed over to the prosecution soon, so what is the expected level of punishment?

[Kim Sung-soo]
If the charges themselves are correct, there are two crimes that can be applied: murder and abandonment of the body. In the case of murder, Article 266 of the Criminal Code stipulates the death penalty, life imprisonment, and a sentence of 15 years or more, and in the case of abandonment of a body, Article 161 stipulates imprisonment for not more than seven years.

Therefore, if the murder part is recognized and the motive itself is a motive that can be criticized, it can be said that the sentencing criteria for that part are more aggravated. So, if it is recognized as the facts you are seeing now, it seems that a considerable heavy sentence will be sentenced. If not, it can be judged differently for that, so we will have to wait and see what the facts are like.

[Anchor]
I pointed out the big cases and issues with lawyer Kim Sung-soo. Thank you.