Prosecutors sat on international cooperation request over Han Dong-hoon's daughter allegations for 11 days before rejecting it
It was revealed during a National Assembly audit that prosecutors held an international cooperation request submitted by police four years ago for review into the 'fabricated credentials' allegations against independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon's daughter for 11 days before rejecting it. As the news came to light, calls are growing for a reinvestigation of the allegations. Criminal judicial cooperation refers to the procedure by which prosecutors and police of different countries exchange evidence or materials located abroad.
During his 2022 confirmation hearing, Rep. Han issued a position statement claiming that "the original author's consent was obtained, so there is no risk of copyright infringement." However, the situation changed when Democratic Party Rep. Park Ju-min disclosed related emails along with a tip that the original author had sent a protest email to Han's daughter. Rep. Han then revealed that he had received the original author's permission only days before the confirmation hearing, not at the time of publication.
When the issue resurfaced, Rep. Han posted a rebuttal on Facebook on the 10th. He argued that "this is a matter in which 'consent' was obtained from a foreign copyright holder" and that "there is nothing at all that could be problematic." However, Democratic Party Rep. Park Gyu-taek countered on October 12 on 'Yoon-sun Jang's Reporting Convenience Store,' saying, "$0.99 is the book's sale price, not the price of the copyright. The issues of morality and conscience cannot be reduced to a $0.99 incident."
While copyright infringement crimes generally require a complaint from the copyright holder, unauthorized use for commercial gain can be punished without one. Police needed to secure physical materials and sales figures to determine whether commercial profit had been obtained through e-book sales, and to that end requested criminal judicial cooperation with the United States in November 2022. However, Rep. Park Gyu-taek stated at the National Assembly Legislation and Judiciary Committee audit, "The cooperation request was never even delivered to the Ministry of Justice or the United States. The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office received the request, sat on it for 11 days, and then rejected it. Practitioners say this is highly unusual and simply unthinkable." Acting Justice Minister Lee Jin-soo, saying he was learning of the matter for the first time at the hearing, responded, "I will verify the facts through the Public Investigation Service." In the end, police closed the case as 'no right to prosecute' without securing the evidence.
During the investigation of former Minister Cho Kuk, prosecutors visited a U.S. university in person to verify allegations regarding his children's online quizzes, applied for FBI cooperation to secure materials, and even submitted them to the court. Rep. Park Gyu-taek asked, "The subordinate prosecutors could not have handled a case involving a sitting minister without reporting it—did they in fact receive such reports?" and urged an investigation into how the cooperation request was blocked at the Central District Prosecutors' Office.
