Special counsel team executes raids at fire stations over alleged power and water cutoffs targeting medial outlets

Lee Young-pal, deputy commissioner of the National Fire Agency, heads to Special Counsel Cho Eun-seok’s office at the Seoul High Prosecutors’ Office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on July 22 to undergo questioning regarding allegations that former President Yoon Suk-yeol ordered power and water cutoffs to certain media outlets, including the Kyunghyang Shinmun, at the time of martial law declaration on December 3 last year. / Yonhap News

The special counsel team led by Cho Eun-seok, investigating the December 3 martial law declaration related insurgency and foreign aggression case, has confirmed that it conducted search and seizure operations on the Seoul Jungbu, Mapo, and Seodaemun fire stations on July 17 in connection with allegations of power and water cutoffs targeting media outlets such as the Kyunghyang Shinmun. The special counsel team investigating the insurgency case summoned Lee Young-pal, deputy commissioner of the National Fire Agency, for questioning on the 22nd and plans to investigate former Minister of the Interior and Safety Lee Sang-min on the 25th.

According to the Kyunghyang Shinmun’s report on the day, during the search and seizure of the National Fire Agency and related sites on the 17th, prosecutors and investigators also executed search warrants at the Seoul Jungbu, Mapo, and Seodaemun fire stations. These fire stations oversee areas where media companies were allegedly targeted for power and water cutoffs at the time of the martial law declaration, reportedly ordered by former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The search of the relevant fire stations was conducted to verify whether there were actual orders to cut power and water to those media outlets at the time of the martial law declaration.

Previously, the Special Investigation Headquarters for the Prosecutor’s Office on the emergency martial law case said in the indictment that former President Yoon showed a document to former Minister Lee Sang-min at the time of the martial law declaration, which instructed the blockade of the Kyunghyang Shinmun, Hankyoreh, MBC, JTBC, and other polling agencies and ordered power and water cutoffs through the National Fire Agency.

According to the indictment, Lee then instructed Fire Commissioner Heo Seok-gon that “police will be deployed to five locations including media outlets,” and ordered “if a request for cooperation with power and water cutoffs comes, take action accordingly.” Heo then relayed the order to Deputy Commissioner Lee, who in turn instructed Hwang Ki-seok, then head of the Seoul Fire Disaster Headquarters, by phone. The case was handed over to the special counsel team before completion. The special counsel team has notified former Minister Lee to appear for questioning on the 25th as a suspect.

The special counsel team began a full-scale investigation by conducting wide-ranging search and seizure operations on the 17th at former Minister Lee’s residence, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety minister’s office, and the National Fire Agency.

After summoning former headquarters chief Hwang for a witness interview on the 18th, the team also called Deputy Commissioner Lee on the same day to investigate the details of the incident.

※This article was translated by an AI tool and edited by a professional translator.