'He must not hide while leaving young aides to bear the responsibility'
Busan lawmakers also call for investigation into Mayor Jeon
People Power Party members of the Busan City Council on Thursday demanded that Mayor Jeon Jae-soo come forward publicly and explain his role in an evidence-destruction case, after four of his former aides were sentenced to prison or fines in the first trial over allegations that he received cash and gifts from the Unification Church. "He must not hide while leaving his young aides to bear the responsibility alone," the council members said, calling on Jeon to "step before the people of Busan and clearly state what happened at the time and where he stands."
At a press conference that afternoon at the city council briefing room, they said Jeon "must answer whether he knew what was happening inside his own office and why his aides went to such lengths to destroy the materials." They also pressed him to explain when he was informed of the evidence destruction and with whom he spoke about it.
"Above all, we cannot help but ask why such young aides had to bear this responsibility and stand trial," they said. "Before speaking about the lives and futures of young people, he should first explain why the young people who worked right beside him were driven to this situation."
The PPP council members urged Jeon to address the public directly, saying that with all four aides found guilty in the first trial, "it is now time to tell the truth to the 3.2 million people of Busan." They demanded he answer whether he received cash and a Cartier luxury watch from the Unification Church.
At the same time, PPP lawmakers representing Busan constituencies held a separate press conference at the National Assembly press center, saying the ruling "must not be dismissed as merely a crime committed by aides." They called on prosecutors to "thoroughly investigate the criminal allegations against Mayor Jeon Jae-soo," and argued that investigators must determine why his four closest aides systematically destroyed evidence and whether Jeon had directed, instigated, known of, or otherwise been involved in the process.
On Wednesday, Judge Kim Su-hong of the Busan District Court's Western Branch Criminal Division handed down guilty verdicts against all four former aides of Jeon — then a National Assembly member — on charges of destroying electronic data stored on hard disk drives and solid-state drives connected to the Unification Church allegations. The aides dismantled HDDs with screwdrivers before striking them with a hammer, and bent SSDs by hand and foot to destroy the stored data.
The senior fifth-grade secretary was sentenced to one year in prison and taken into custody in the courtroom, while a fourth-grade aide received eight months in prison, suspended for two years. A secretary in his 30s and an intern secretary in his 20s were each fined 3 million won ($2,210).
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