District prosecution chief briefed on first lady's questioning before report to prosecutor general 3hrs later

The chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office was briefed on last week's questioning of first lady Kim Keon Hee more than three hours before he reported it to Prosecutor General Lee One-seok, sources said Thursday.

The revelation came after the top prosecutor expressed frustrations that he had been in the dark about Saturday's questioning of Kim over a luxury bag scandal for some 10 hours, and ordered an inspection into what happened.

The inspection is expected to focus on why Lee Chang-soo, chief of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, delayed reporting the important issue to the prosecutor general.

According to sources on Thursday, prosecutors from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office informed their chief about the first lady's questioning at around 7:40 p.m. Saturday, about six hours after the questioning began.

The district chief reported the matter about 3 1/2 hours later to the prosecutor general at 11:16 p.m.

After recently learning of the delay, investigating prosecutors complained to the district chief and insisted that they had not agreed on reporting the matter to the prosecutor general belatedly.

Kim was questioned for about 12 hours at a government office outside of the prosecution office. It consisted of two sessions: the first on alleged stock price manipulation involving Deutsch Motors Inc., a BMW dealer, and the second on the luxury bag allegations.

Investigators maintain that they properly reported the second session before it began because the chief prosecutor is legally barred from overseeing the alleged stock manipulation case, making a report on the first session unnecessary. (Yonhap)