The circumstances of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy’s involvement in the decision of the Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power Council regarding the shutdown of the Wolseong nuclear power plant was revealed.
Prosecutor’s Office Chief, Blue House Report Suspicion
The prosecution’s crime list obtained by the JoongAng Ilbo on the 29th contains a list of 530 files deleted by three officials from the Ministry of Industry just before the Wolseong Unit 1 audit. Among the restoration files, the document ‘180524_ Requests from the President of Han Suwon’, which is estimated to have been prepared three weeks before the board of directors of KHNP decided to close the Wolseong unit 1 (June 15, 2018). It contained the content that the KHNP should request a briefing session. The prosecution determined that documents such as ‘180530_ Reference Materials for KHNP President’s Interview’ and ‘4234’ were also discussed by the Ministry of Industry and KHNP.
It was also revealed that the Ministry of Industry reported the early closure of Wolseong Unit 1 to the Blue House. The ‘4234’ document contained the content that’because it is a pre-reported matter for the Blue House (BH), it is necessary to stop operation immediately after the decision to close early, and a resolution of the board of directors is necessary immediately after the 6·13 local election. The document ‘180523_ Current Status of Energy Conversion Complementary Measures and Future Schedule (Sent by BH)’ contains the content, “On June 15, 2018, the KHNP Board of Directors will decide to close the Wolsong 1 unit early and immediately shut down the operation.” At this time, it was before the results of external service evaluation on the economic feasibility of Wolseong Unit 1 came out. This is why the prosecution believes that it is highly likely that the Blue House and the Ministry of Industry decided to shut down the nuclear power plant in advance and put pressure on KHNP.
The results of this investigation contradict the clarification of the Ministry of Industry. Industry Minister Sung Yun-mo and former Industry Minister Baek Un-gyu argued that “the decision was made by KHNP autonomously, apart from the government’s policy decision.”
Hey, “Find all the superiors and punish them severely” W, “Prosecution claims, facts cannot be verified”
In June 2018, when the board of directors Han Su-won was imminent, there were also traces that the document for the presidential report was rewritten at the request of the Blue House for revision. This is the document ‘180610_President’s Energy Conversion (Nuclear Power Plant) Report_Nuclear Power Station_v (Resubmitted to Reflect BH Amendment Request)’. In addition, in the press release related to the early closing decision of the board of directors of KHNP, there was also a document ‘180611_ Request for Industrial Secretary’ in consultation with Chehee Hee-bong’s then Cheong Wa Dae industrial secretary about plans to include employment guarantees for workers at Wolsong Unit 1. The prosecution pointed out that among the files to be deleted, there were documents containing plans for the construction of the North Korean nuclear power plant, civic groups for and against the nuclear power plant, and the KHNP union trend.
Clerk A, who was prosecuted for being arrested for executing the document deletion, said in an investigation by the Audit Office, “The reason for deleting various business folders including folders related to the Wolseong Unit 1 audit after entering the office of the Ministry of Industry after 10 p.m. on December 1, 2019 is the following morning. It was because the interview was promised,” he said. “It was deleted in order not to submit the audit data to the auditor and to tell the auditor that there was no related data.” He said, “When the file was restored, the file name was modified to ‘4234’ and deleted in order to prevent the identification of the document by the file name.”
As the list of files deleted by the Ministry of Industry was released, the ripples are expanding to the political world. The power of the people went on a total offensive on this day, such as, on that day, head of the Emergency Response Committee, Kim Jong-in, directly issued a long statement of over 1,800 characters. Chairman Kim stipulated that “the related documents deleted by government officials in collusion with the government are a black box that contains all of the early shutdown of nuclear power plants, which the ruling forces tried to hide.” In particular, regarding the document that identified the trends of civic groups and unions opposing the government’s post-nuclear policy, “the current government has been steadfastly insisting that there is no temple DNA, but this time it has been revealed.” did.
Rep. Lee Cheol-gyu, a secretary on the opposition party of the National Assembly’s Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, said, “The government department is required to disclose all the receipts of documents sent to the agency in the state affairs audit, but the list deleted this time has never been confirmed by the previous national audit. “It wasn’t simply deleted because of fear before the audit, but it was systematically concealed from the beginning.” In this regard, the power of the people plans to form a new fact-finding committee at the party level. In particular, as there is a possibility that the nuclear power plant-related investigation will be transferred to the recently launched high-ranking public officials criminal investigation office, the intention is to increase the level of pressure on the Blue House and the ruling party until the prosecution investigation is complete.
In response to this, the position of the Democratic Party, which has been criticizing Choi Jae-hyung, the chief auditor for “political gratitude,” became embarrassing. The Democratic Party did not make any official response on this day. A member of the Democratic Party’s leadership said in a call with the JoongAng Ilbo that “the prosecution is the prosecution’s argument, and the facts have not been confirmed.” The fact that the Ministry of Industry had exchanged discussions with the Blue House came out, he added, “we also do not know anything.” Spokesman Shin Young-dae criticized, “When the auditor submitted an audit report to the National Assembly last year, there was no list of deleted files, but now they are sneaking and saying that they have recovered.” Among the list of deletions, opinions diverged about the report on the trend of civic groups opposing the shutdown of nuclear power plants by the Ministry of Industry. In general, the reaction was “I can’t know what’s in it by looking at the title”, but “I don’t know anything else, but it seems that there was a problem with the Ministry of Industry having a report of the assembly filed by a civic group to the police” (Re-elect Honam). Also came out.
Reporters Kang Kwang-woo, Jung Yu-jin, and Seong Ji-won [email protected]