Liberal YouTube channel discovered as origin of secret file on ex-prosecutor general

A progressive YouTube channel was confirmed Thursday to have authored one of the controversial secret files allegedly detailing various allegations surrounding a leading presidential hopeful for the opposition bloc and his family members.

The YouTube channel, Open Mind TV, acknowledged in its breaking news a day earlier that it wrote part of multiple different versions of what is known as the "Yoon Seok-youl X-file" after the name of the former prosecution chief.

According to political sources, the six-page PDF file has been circulated among politicians and online in recent days, rattling the political circle as Yoon is gearing up to declare his bid to run for the presidency.

While many see the content of the file as presenting nothing critically damaging to Yoon, others say the document may deal a heavy blow to his presidential bid.

"Out of the Yoon Seok-youl X-file that has recently been circulated, we wrote its table of contents," the YouTube channel said, adding it did so as part of reporting purposes only.

Open Mind TV said the file does not have any intention to "politically slander" Yoon but only outlines what the channel has broadcast about the former prosecutor general since last year. It added the internal file seems to have been accidentally leaked.

The file reportedly details Yoon's background and controversies surrounding his family members, including his wife and mother-in-law.

The description of the digital file's properties showed it was created by a person surnamed Chung, the same name as the operator of Open Mind TV.

With more than 240,000 subscribers, the channel has promoted progressive political causes, such as the need to reform the national prosecution service. It has been, in particular, critical of Yoon.

Having served as the top prosecutor under the Moon Jae-in administration, Yoon will declare his presidential bid next Tuesday, according to his aide.

In the latest opinion poll for presidential hopefuls, released by Realmeter earlier in the day, Yoon was leading rival presidential runners by a wide margin.

He garnered 32.3 percent of support, maintaining his solid lead over runner-up Lee Jae-myung, the governor of Gyeonggi Province, who had 22.8 percent.

Yoon's latest figure marks a drop of 2.8 percentage points from the same Realmeter poll two weeks earlier, however, apparently affected by the controversy over the X-file, the pollster said.

It was the first opinion poll conducted by Realmeter since news reports on the secret file emerged. (Yonhap)