Choo Mi-ae accuses Serious Crimes Investigation Agency nominee of blocking Han Dong-hoon phone forensics

Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae has accused Kim Ji-yong, the nominee to lead the inaugural Serious Crimes Investigation Agency, of obstructing an investigation by refusing to approve 400 million won ($299,000) in forensic costs for lawmaker Han Dong-hoon's mobile phone, and called for a thorough vetting at his confirmation hearing. Kim's camp has denied the allegations.

Choo wrote on her Facebook page Thursday that witnesses sympathetic to former President Yoon Suk Yeol's allies were being called to testify while those who had fought alone to uphold prosecutorial integrity on the other side were being left out. "Are you afraid of the truth? Can a proper personnel review be conducted without it?" she said.

She also raised questions about the use of prosecutors' special activity funds, targeting Kim over a dispute about iPhone forensic costs that arose while he served as head of the criminal affairs division at the Supreme Prosecutors' Office.

Choo said then-Prosecutor General Kim Oh-soo and Kim Ji-yong, in his role as criminal affairs division chief, had failed to approve 400 million won in special activity funds to cover forensic costs for Han's iPhone — funds she said should have been allocated as investigation support expenses. She argued the refusal led to the concealment of critical evidence related to allegations surrounding Yoon and Han.

Choo said the collapse of the phone forensics effort meant the Channel A coercion attempt case and the informant-instigation case were never properly resolved.

Kim's confirmation hearing preparation team had previously denied the allegations. On Sept. 23, it said the claim that Kim had refused to carry out forensics on Han's phone was untrue, adding that the Channel A case had been investigated independently by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office following the then-justice minister's removal of investigative command authority, and that Kim had not been involved.