A court dismissed the indictments against Yoon Jae-soon, former senior presidential secretary for general affairs, and Rep. Lim Jong-deuk of the People Power Party, both charged over alleged interference in personnel decisions at the National Security Office under the Yoon Suk-yeol administration. The court found the allegations fell outside the scope of the special counsel's mandate and could not be treated as a related case uncovered in the course of its investigation.
The 23rd criminal division of the Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Chief Judge Oh Se-yong, dismissed the indictments on the 21st at a hearing to deliver its ruling on charges including abuse of authority. A dismissal of indictment ends proceedings without examining the substance of a case when formal conditions for prosecution are lacking or there are procedural defects.
Yoon was indicted on charges that in September 2023 he acted on a request from an acquaintance and had Lim and Lim Ki-hoon, then presidential secretary for national defense, appoint a specific person during the selection of an officer to handle drone strategy at the National Crisis Management Center under the National Security Office. Officers dispatched to the National Security Office are normally appointed after the Ministry of National Defense receives recommendations of suitable candidates from the Army, Navy and Air Force, but investigators found the officer appointed at the time had not been among those recommended. The special counsel team led by Cho Eun-suk uncovered the case while investigating allegations of foreign exchange-related offenses tied to the Dec. 3 emergency martial law declaration, and indicted Yoon and Lim in December last year.
The court, however, ruled that the charges did not fall within the scope of the investigation set out in the special counsel act. It said the alleged personnel interference bore no connection to the drone incursion over Pyongyang. The alleged interference took place around August and September 2023, while the drone incident occurred around October 2024 — a gap of about 13 months — and the locations of the alleged offenses also differed, the court said. "Those identified as key figures in the drone incident, including Yoon Suk-yeol, Kim Yong-hyun and Yeo In-hyung, do not match the defendants and others involved in this case, and the legal interests protected by the crimes described are also different," the court said.
The court also ruled that the case could not be regarded as a related case uncovered during the drone investigation. The special counsel argued during the trial that it had learned of the case while checking whether National Security Office officials were involved in preparing and carrying out the operation, as part of efforts to establish the facts of the drone incident. But the court said that even a case uncovered during an investigation must show a reasonable link to the existing scope of the probe. Otherwise, it said, the special counsel's investigative reach could expand without limit, raising concerns that the rights of those under investigation to defend themselves would be infringed.
"Even after it became clear that the matter fell outside the scope of its investigation, the special counsel did not transfer or refer the case to another agency but continued investigating and brought charges," the court said. "That does not accord with the purpose of the special counsel act, which is to secure fairness and objectivity by having a special counsel investigate and prosecute cases that are difficult to handle under the ordinary investigative system."
