“So, a special prosecutor is investigating. What is he going to come up with?”

This was the highly cynical response of an official at the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office (SPO) upon the launch last month of a special prosecutor’s investigation into “sponsorship” allegations. The argument was that “nothing else is going to emerge no matter how hard you shake,” since the prosecutors had already looked into everything that might become an issue in its own investigation following the airing of an episode of the MBC current events program “PD Notebook” in which the allegations were presented.

In the month since initiating its investigation, the marks of special prosecutor Min Kyung-sik’s team have indeed been poor. Its only accomplishment to date has been the arrest of two former investigators with the Seoul High Prosecutor’s Office on charges of accepting bribes and leaking official secrets, for allegedly receiving hundreds of millions of Won worth of “entertainment” from a businessman in exchange for favorable treatment of his case.

The details of the improprieties were confirmed in news outlets in August, but the prosecutors, who had initially concluded the case by dismissing the two individuals and claimed that there was no connection between the acceptance of bribe money and their job duties, reopened it after claiming to have secured information to prove a “quid pro quo” connection.

However, no progress whatsoever has been made in the prosecution’s investigation into the core of the case, namely charges of illegal lobbying of prosecutors by a 51-year-old Busan-area construction company president identified by the surname Jeong. Four former and current prosecutors, including 52-year-old former Busan District Prosecutor’s Office head Park Ki-joon and 47-year-old former SPO chief inspector Han Seung-cheol, were called in for questioning and cross-examination. However, sources report that this failed to produce any particular results, as both men adamantly denied the charges. The special prosecution team has extended its investigation period by 20 days, but in light of the coming Chuseok holiday and the time needed to draft an investigation report, experts are saying no “unforeseen reversal” is likely to happen before the investigation concludes on Sept. 28.

In the unlikely event that the special prosecutors’ investigation produces no results, experts say there many are likely to contend that the special prosecutors are useless. Certain innate limits inevitably surface during the process of compromising with the political needs of ruling and opposition parties, and in the case of this special prosecutor’s investigation, allegations of collusion raised by certain opposition parties and civic and social groups against former Prosecutor General nominee Chun Sung-gwan were excluded from the scope of the investigation. Moreover, critics have taken issue with the fact that a currently serving public prosecutor has been sent to investigate corruption among prosecutors.

Attorney Jung Jae-sung, who is representing Mr. Jeong, the individual who first blew the whistle on the incident and is himself implicated in its allegations, complained about the treatment of his client.

“Mr. Jeong was submitted to improper questioning, including interrogation about personal issues, by the dispatched prosecutor,” Jung said.

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]