Prosecutors ruled the disclosed information was already publicly known, making secrecy classification difficult to uphold; a separate military court case tied to SCM talks is ongoing at the first-instance level

Rep. Bu Seung-chan of the Democratic Party of Korea questions witnesses during a National Assembly Defense Committee national audit held at the Army's Second Operations Command on Oct. 22, 2024. [Yonhap]
Rep. Bu Seung-chan of the Democratic Party of Korea questions witnesses during a National Assembly Defense Committee national audit held at the Army's Second Operations Command on Oct. 22, 2024. [Yonhap]

By Choi Eui-jong, The Herald Business

Prosecutors have cleared Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Bu Seung-chan of charges that he disclosed official secrets obtained while attending Korea-US defense ministerial talks during his time as Defense Ministry spokesperson, finding no grounds for indictment.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's Criminal Division 1, led by Chief Prosecutor Shin Do-wook, issued a no-charge disposition against Rep. Bu on May 18, finding insufficient evidence of the alleged offense. Prosecutors determined that the information in question had already been publicly known and therefore could not be recognized as a protected secret.

Rep. Bu, a retired Air Force major who served as the final Defense Ministry spokesperson under the Moon Jae-in administration, had faced charges of leaking official secrets. The allegations stemmed from his practice of keeping daily diary-style records of information he obtained while attending Korea-US defense ministerial meetings, then transferring those files from the Defense Ministry's internal network to an external device after leaving office and publishing them as a book. The book, titled "Power and Security: The Defense Secretary of the Moon Jae-in Administration and the Cheon-gong Allegations," was published in February 2023.

In the book, Rep. Bu wrote about the Korea-US defense ministerial talks held in March 2021, stating that then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had said North Korea was trying to drive a wedge between the Korea-US alliance and called for strengthening it, and had described North Korea as a clear threat in every respect.

Rep. Bu also published accounts of the 53rd Security Consultative Meeting (SCM) held in December 2021. In response, the Defense Counterintelligence Command received a report in February 2023 alleging a violation of the Military Secrets Protection Act and raided his home as part of its investigation. The Defense Ministry's prosecution unit, which took over the case, indicted Rep. Bu without detention at the Central Regional Military Court in July of that year on related charges.

The Defense Ministry's prosecution unit applied charges on the grounds that Rep. Bu had separately recorded statements made by senior Korean and US officials at the 53rd SCM — content designated as military secrets that had never been made public — and then leaked the material outside official channels in violation of security procedures before and after his retirement, subsequently publishing it as a book. That case is currently at the first-instance stage at the Central Regional Military Court.

The portion of the case relating to the Korea-US defense ministerial talks was assessed as potentially involving the separate offense of leaking official secrets under general criminal law and was referred to police, who hold jurisdiction over that charge. The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Anti-Corruption and Public Crime Investigation Unit investigated the matter and questioned Rep. Bu as a suspect in October 2023 before referring the case to prosecutors the following year.

The book also included an account in which a noncommissioned officer responsible for managing a military residence reported to then-Army Chief of Staff Nam Yeong-shin that Kim Yong-hyun, then head of the Presidential Security Service, and a fortune teller known as Cheon-gong had visited the Army chief of staff's official residence and other sites during the process of selecting a presidential residence for the Yoon Suk Yeol administration in 2022.

The Yoon Suk Yeol administration's presidential office filed a complaint with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency in February 2023 against Rep. Bu and others on charges of defamation through the spread of false information, saying they had raised "absurd and fabricated allegations suggesting that a fortune teller participated in decision-making."

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Cyber Investigation Unit, which was assigned the case, referred former Justice Party lawmaker Kim Jong-dae and others to prosecutors in August 2023, finding sufficient grounds for charges. Kim had appeared alongside Rep. Bu on the TBS Radio program "Kim Eui-jun's News Factory" and mentioned the Cheon-gong allegations. That case is currently under investigation by the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office.


bell@heraldcorp.com