China News Service, August 21 (Zhang Naiyue) On the 19th local time, the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office and the Daejeon District Prosecutor's Office conducted two seizure searches of the Presidential Archives in Sejong City, which kept the archives of the former president.

　　Korean media believe that this situation is "very rare."

Some analysts pointed out that the search was directly aimed at the former government of Moon Jae-in and Moon Jae-in himself.

South Korea's largest opposition party even said that the search was "political revenge".

　　It has only been more than 3 months since former President Moon Jae-in stepped down, will South Korea be haunted by the "Blue House Curse" again?

Data map: Former South Korean President Moon Jae-in.

Is Moon Jae-in abusing his power?

Presidential archives raided twice in one day

　　Before August 19, successive South Korean governments had conducted only seven seizures and searches of the presidential archives.

On August 19, South Korean prosecutors conducted two seizure searches on Moon Jae-in government records.

　　One of them is related to the suspected fabrication of doubts about the economy of Unit 1 of the Yuecheng Nuclear Power Plant.

　　According to Korean media reports, during his tenure as president, Moon Jae-in once advocated a "denuclear power" plan.

In 2017, he stated that he would completely cancel the construction plan for new nuclear power plants in preparation, no longer extend the design life of nuclear power plants, abolish the power generation policy based on nuclear power plants, and move towards the era of "de-nuclear power".

　　In 2018, the Korea Hydro Nuclear Power Corporation decided to put this nuclear power plant into commercial operation in 1983, citing the lack of economic benefits of the unit, and was approved to extend the operating time limit to 2022.

In December 2019, the Korea Atomic Energy Safety Commission reviewed and approved the "Permanent Shutdown Permit for Unit 1 of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant" to permanently shut it down.

　　In 2020, the Korea Audit Office issued an audit report on the “adequacy of the decision to close the No. 1 unit of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant in advance”, and determined that the economic benefits of the nuclear power plant were excessively underestimated.

　　In March of this year, a civic group opposed to the denuclearization policy in South Korea called for an investigation into whether the decision to close the Wolseong nuclear power plant was illegal, and denounced then-President Moon Jae-in for alleged abuse of power.

Ren Zhongxi, the former head of the Blue House secretary office in South Korea, and Kim Soo-hyun, the former chief secretary of social work, were also reported for the same reason.

Moon Jae-in waves to supporters at a farewell ceremony outside the Blue House on May 9, 2022.

　　On May 10 this year, the first day of former South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s resignation, South Korean civil organizations and more than 2,600 citizens jointly reported to the South Korean District Prosecutor’s Office, demanding an investigation into Moon Jae-in’s “abuse of power” in the process of implementing the nuclear power policy. suspected.

The complaint letter stated that Moon Jae-in “abused his power” to prematurely shut down Unit 1 of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant and interrupted the construction of a new nuclear power plant, causing the collapse of small and medium-sized enterprises in the nuclear power industry, the decline in the share price of Korea Electric Power Corporation, and aggravating the public’s burden.

　　According to regulations, presidential files cannot be accessed for a maximum of 15 years, and information related to personal privacy cannot be accessed for a maximum of 30 years.

Only if more than two-thirds of the current members of Congress approve or the high court of the jurisdiction orders disclosure, it can be accessed, copied and submitted as information.

"Blue House Curse" Reappears?

The current president sent Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak to prison

　　Regarding the seizure and search of the Presidential Archives by the South Korean prosecutors, Korea International Broadcasting Station (KBS) analyzed that this means that the scope of the investigation has officially expanded to the former Blue House executives.

　　It is expected that the investigation team will conduct this seizure investigation to investigate in detail what role was played by the then Blue House in the decision to close the No. 1 unit of the Wolseong Nuclear Power Plant ahead of schedule, and whether the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Energy instructed the improper closure.

　　Since many South Korean presidents end in tragedy after leaving office, they are known as the "Blue House Curse". This seizure and search has aroused suspicion from the outside world.

On May 10, 2022, the Blue House in South Korea was officially opened to the public after 74 years.

Image source: ICphoto

　　Korean media reported the views of South Korea’s largest opposition party, the Common Democratic Party, on the search of the presidential archives, saying that this is South Korea’s current President Yin Xiyue’s political retaliation against former President Moon Jae-in. Suspend the investigation.

　　Yin Xiyue, a former attorney general of South Korea, once said that if he is in power, he will investigate and settle the accusations of the Moon Jae-in regime.

For this statement, Moon Jae-in expressed strong anger at the time and demanded an apology.

It is worth noting that former South Korean presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak were both sent to prison by Yin Xiyue "personally".

　　"It is political retaliation to include policy issues in the scope of the investigation and persecute and insult the subjects of the investigation," said Woo Sang-ho, the general head of the Democratic Party's Election Countermeasures Committee.

Shin Hyun-young, a spokesman for the Common Democratic Party, also believes that all the purposes of this search are against former President Moon Jae-in himself.

　　On May 3, when Moon Jae-in presided over the last state affairs meeting of his term, he voted and passed two bills to amend the "Prosecutor's Office Law" and the "Criminal Procedure Law" to limit the power of prosecutors and investigations.

However, due to the hasty process, it was severely criticized by the opposition party at the time.

　　In this regard, some experts analyzed at the time that Wen Zaiyin wanted to "reduce relevant risks as much as possible" before stepping down, and it was not ruled out that Wen Zaiyin would be involved in some political whirlpools after stepping down.

　　In his departure speech, Moon Jae-in once said that he was finally able to unload the burden of the president and return to "civilian" life.

Now, as South Korean prosecutors have begun to speed up the pace of investigation, it is still unknown whether Moon Jae-in will get his wish.

(Finish)