It was reported that the prosecution, which is investigating the Moon Jae-in administration’s ‘suspicion of statistics manipulation’, summoned Kang Shin-wook, former head of the National Statistical Office, for questioning on the 27th.
According to the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office on this day, former Commissioner Kang was summoned as a suspect and questioned. The prosecution reportedly questioned whether former Commissioner Kang was involved in manipulating household income and employment statistics from 2018 to 2019. In particular, she said, she focused on investigating whether there was pressure from the Blue House in relation to the preparation of statistics and whether unfair instructions were given to Statistics Korea employees.
Previously, the Board of Audit and Inspection said, “In August 2019, when the number of non-regular, fixed-term workers increased by 790,000 compared to the previous year, the Blue House at the time of the Moon Jae-in administration summoned former Commissioner Kang and instructed him to explain that the cause of the increase was due to a changed statistical survey method, and former Commissioner Kang reflected this.” pointed out. An investigation by the Board of Audit and Inspection revealed that the Blue House manipulated the results by pressuring the National Statistical Office in calculating the ‘income quintile ratio’, an indicator of income distribution.
The Board of Audit and Inspection believes that the previous government intervened in statistics related to housing prices, income, and employment from 2017 to 2021 and manipulated them in a way that favors the regime, and is investigating former Commissioner Kang and former government policy chiefs (Jang Ha-seong, Kim Soo-hyun, Kim Sang-jo, and Lee Ho-seung). Prosecutors requested an investigation into 22 former and current public officials, including former President Hong Jang-pyo, Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs, and former Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Hyun-mi, on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of the exercise of rights.
The prosecution searched and seized the National Statistical Office, Korea Real Estate Agency, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Strategy and Finance, and Ministry of Employment and Labor for two days starting on the 5th.
An official from the Daejeon District Prosecutors’ Office said, “The summons and investigation of former Commissioner Kang is part of the investigation of a number of suspects suspected of manipulating statistics,” and added, “As the matter is under investigation, we cannot provide further details.”
[권선미 기자]
2023-10-27 14:13:21
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