Police internal probe into Jang Yun-gi case ends at precinct level, leaving higher command untouched

A special police investigative unit probing the botched investigation of the Jang Yun-gi case has referred front-line commanders, including a precinct chief, to prosecutors and concluded its work.

While prosecutors pushed their own investigation all the way up to the National Investigation Headquarters over alleged interference in the flawed probe, the police's internal inquiry stopped at the precinct command level.

According to Yonhap, the special investigative unit under the Korean National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters referred two senior officers — former Gwangsan Police Station chief Kim, 58, a senior superintendent general, and former Gwangsan detective division head Park, 55, a superintendent — to prosecutors without seeking their detention on charges including abuse of authority and dereliction of duty.

The two officers are accused of issuing improper orders to the violent crimes unit at Gwangsan Police Station in May, when Jang Yun-gi, 23, killed a high school girl, preventing investigators from examining the criminal motive behind his acts, including kidnapping and sexual assault.

The unit determined that Kim had downgraded the killing to an "ordinary murder" to conceal his mishandling of an earlier stalking and sexual assault case involving Jang and a coworker — a case reported via the 112 emergency line. Investigators found that Kim directed Park to treat the murder and the stalking and sexual assault cases as unrelated and to apply only the ordinary murder charge, and that Park then passed those instructions down to the violent crimes unit.

In addition, the unit concluded that the evidence and witness statements already in hand had been sufficient to charge Jang with rape-murder, but that the improper orders resulted in the case being referred under the lesser ordinary murder charge instead.

Kim and Park were investigated as co-perpetrators on the abuse-of-authority charges. Park reportedly told investigators that he had requested a combined investigation of the murder and sex crime cases from a higher authority, but received orders to keep them separate — a directive he said had obstructed the rape-murder investigation.

The unit interpreted the higher authority's directive that Park described as an instruction to prioritize sending the murder case to prosecutors first, given that the detention deadline was approaching, and to forward the stalking and sexual assault case only after a thorough investigation. The unit concluded the directive was intended to uncover the truth and protect the victim — not to downplay the nature of Jang's crimes.

The unit also found that, contrary to Park's account, Kim had ignored repeated directives from higher authorities to determine whether Jang's killing had a sexual motive.

The scandal over the botched investigation was triggered by prosecutors' supplementary inquiry, which revealed that Jang's father — an active-duty police officer — had destroyed key physical evidence, including a sex doll, and had been regularly briefed on the investigation's progress by the violent crimes unit.

An internal audit by the Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency was converted into a formal investigation in early July. The agency elevated the probe from its anti-corruption and financial crimes unit to a special investigative team under the National Investigation Headquarters, which was later expanded into a full special unit led by a senior superintendent general — though concerns persisted about whether police could credibly investigate their own.

Ultimately, the National Investigation Headquarters leadership, which had issued key directives including the order to separate the investigations, escaped accountability after more than two and a half months of inquiry.

That outcome stands in contrast to the prosecutors' parallel investigation, which resulted in charges against the then-head of the National Investigation Headquarters and other current and former senior officials. Prosecutors, conducting their own separate probe into the mishandled investigation, indicted Park Seong-ju, 60, the then-headquarters chief who ordered the division of investigative jurisdiction over Jang's multiple crimes between the detective division and the women and youth division, along with other current and former senior National Investigation Headquarters officials, on charges including abuse of authority.

Prosecutors said they would decide whether to indict Kim and Park after reviewing the special unit's findings.