Seoul – In a significant development, prosecutors raided the home of Kim Yong-jin, the head of the online news outlet Newstapa, on Wednesday. The raid was related to Newstapa’s reporting on an alleged fake interview in 2021 intended to discredit then opposition presidential candidate Yoon Suk Yeol.
According to Yonhap News Agency, The Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office dispatched prosecutors and investigators to seize materials connected to the coverage of the interview, which was conducted on the eve of last year’s presidential election. The controversy surrounds an interview given by Kim Man-bae, a suspect in the Daejang-dong development project scandal, to Newstapa-affiliated journalist Shin Hak-lim in September 2021. In the interview, Kim Man-bae suggested that Yoon was the mastermind behind the scandal.
The interview, reported by Newstapa and other media outlets just days before the presidential election, stirred confusion among voters. Subsequently, Kim Man-bae paid Shin 165 million won (approximately US$123,500) days after the interview. The raid and investigation highlight the ongoing legal scrutiny and controversy surrounding the case and its potential impact on South Korea’s political landscape.