Paik Woon-gyu “The top priority for the closure of Wolseong Unit 1…legal treatment [종합]

Paik Woon-gyu (56), former Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy (Ministry of Industry) warned against allegations of unfairly engaging in the operation of the economic feasibility evaluation of Wolseong Unit 1 nuclear power plant (obstruction of the exercise of the right to abuse rights) and the allegation of interfering with the work of Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power (obstruction of business). On the 8th, he attended the interrogation (substantial warrant) of the suspect before arrest conducted by the district law.

The decision to be arrested this night is expected to become an important watershed for investigations such as whether to intervene in the Blue House.

“The early closure of Wolsong Unit 1 was a state-run project with the highest priority on public safety,” said Baek, before the warrant examination at around 2:10 pm. “When I was in office as the minister, the business was handled in a due process based on laws and principles.” He added, “I will faithfully work on the warrant review today.”

The substantive examination of the warrant for former Minister Baek will be conducted at the court of Daejeon District Law No.301 at 2:30 pm on the same day as the hearing of the chief judge Oh Se-yong in charge of the warrant.

Former Minister Baek is accused of being involved in manipulating the economic evaluation of KHNP for the early closure of Wolseong Unit 1. According to a report by the Audit and Inspection Service, in April 2018, after a report on the need for a’temporary operation’ of Wolsong Unit 1, he ordered a review with the conclusion of a’immediate shutdown’. On June 11 of that year, the evaluation of economic feasibility came out as’immediate shutdown’, and KHNP decided to close the Wolsong 1 early based on this four days later.

Baek also accused of instructing public officials to delete related data after the auditor initiated the audit. Before the audit of the auditor, former Minister Baek instructed three public officials to delete 530 nuclear-related materials. They deleted materials related to nuclear power plants from the Ministry of Industry’s PC in December 2019. Some of the files they deleted included internal reports related to the North Korean nuclear power plant, which was controversial.

On the 25th of last month, Minister Paik was reported to have denied most of the charges related to the prosecution as a suspect.

Two of the three officials from the Ministry of Industry who deleted data are already detained. The interrogation of the suspect before the arrest of a public official of the Ministry of Industry was also handled by Senior Judge Oh Se-yong.

It is expected that the arrest of former Minister Baek will come out late this night. If the arrest is decided, there is a possibility that the prosecution investigation will go to the Blue House. The prosecution suspects that the Blue House is behind Secretary Baek’s order to close the nuclear power plant early. At that time, the presidential social policy chief and industrial policy secretary were Kim Soo-hyun, former Blue House Policy Officer, and Chae Hee-bong, president of Gas Corporation.

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