DPK slams state auditor for becoming Yoon's 'pawn' over inspection into slain official
Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) Chair Choe Jae-hae, center, arrives for work at the BAI headquarters in Seoul on Oct. 14. Yonhap
The main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) on Friday slammed the state auditor for becoming a "pawn" of the Yoon Suk-yeol government, a day after the institution referred former officials in the previous administration to prosecutors over the killing of a South Korean fisheries official by North Korea in 2020.
Following a two-month inspection into the Moon Jae-in government's handling of the official's death near the Yellow Sea border, the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) requested the prosecution investigate 20 people on charges that include power abuse and document forgery.
The list reportedly includes top security officials of the Moon administration, such as former National Security Adviser Suh Hoon, former National Intelligence Service chief Park Jie-won and former Defense Minister Suh Wook.
The DPK, which has criticized the inspections for being politically motivated, accused the state auditor for compromising its independence and neutrality to support the conservative Yoon administration.
"An unprecedented crisis has occurred. The BAI, which should operate independently, has become a pawn of Yoon's presidential office and breached the Constitution," a DPK committee against political oppression said in a statement.
The DPK, which has filed a complaint against top BAI officials, claimed the state auditor's inspections did not comply with relevant procedures and pledged to take measures against them.
"We will file additional complaints and push for a state probe into the BAI's breach of the Constitution and BAI Act," the committee said.
The state auditor launched the probe into the Moon administration's handling of the 2020 case on June 17, a day after the Coast Guard said it has not found any circumstances suggesting the fisheries official was attempting to defect, backing away from its previous assessment.
Yoon has denied the allegation that his office exerted influence on the BAI. (Yonhap)