[Choice Times=Bo-Sik Choi, Publisher]

Why did allegations of a “deal to withdraw indictments” between President Lee Jae-myung and senior prosecutors surface on Kim Ou-joon’s YouTube channel?

On the 10th, Kim Ou-joon invited Jang In-soo, a former MBC reporter, to appear on his YouTube channel, providing a platform for what sounded like a conspiracy-like exposé claiming that “a senior government official asked prosecutors to withdraw the indictment against President Lee Jae-myung.”
It is likely that Kim had heard the details of the alleged exposé beforehand and invited Jang to his channel.

The timing was also notable. It came just one day after President Lee posted on social media warning that, in pursuing the Democratic Party’s hardline push to completely abolish the prosecution’s supplementary investigative authority, “we must be careful not to burn down the entire house just to catch a few fleas by turning everyone into targets of reform.”

Rumors had long circulated in political circles about a looming confrontation between “Blue House President Lee Jae-myung and the power broker Kim Ou-joon of Chungjeong-ro.”
Now that battle appears to have ignited. For observers, few power struggles could be more intriguing.

During the broadcast, Jang claimed it was an “exclusive report,” saying:
“A senior official who is clearly one of President Lee’s closest aides conveyed a message to several senior prosecutors saying, ‘What I say is the president’s will’ and ‘I only do what the president orders,’ and asking them to withdraw the indictment related to Lee.”

He added that one of the prosecutors who received the message reportedly responded, “Rather than doing this, you should follow proper procedures and issue formal instructions through the official chain of command.”
Because the message was not sent to just one or two individuals, Jang said the story was spreading rapidly within the prosecution.

According to Jang, prosecutors interpreted the message as meaning that “the Lee Jae-myung administration wants to make a deal with us.”
He continued, “Some prosecutors now believe that if the prosecution leadership withdraws the indictment, they could bundle together the president and pro-Lee prosecutors at the top and bring them all down.”

In other words, prosecutors who feel pressured by the government’s push for prosecutorial reform might attempt to investigate the decision to withdraw the indictment as abuse of power, potentially bringing down the president.

Kim Ou-joon then asked, “These days many people claim to speak for the president. How can we know that this request to withdraw the indictment actually reflects the president’s will?”

Jang replied that the source was “a very senior government official with both the authority and the capacity to take responsibility.”

Near the end of the broadcast, Kim commented,
“It seems to me that reporter Jang In-soo has done some major reporting,” effectively lending support to Jang’s explosive claim, which was aimed directly at President Lee.

For reference, Jang previously left MBC after being linked to “Informant X,” a controversial figure in the so-called prosecutor-journalist collusion case during the Moon Jae-in administration, in which Channel A reporter Lee Dong-jae was imprisoned before later being cleared.

Pro-Lee lawmaker Han Joon-ho strongly pushed back, calling the allegation “not even worthy of being called a rumor,” and demanded evidence.

In a Facebook post, Han wrote:
“How can you casually bring up baseless conspiracy theories—worse than street gossip—on a broadcast to attack the Lee Jae-myung government and divide party members and citizens?”
He added that spreading such allegations without evidence was “not criticism but blatant political agitation.”

The Democratic Party’s largest pro-Lee organization, the National Innovation Conference, also issued a statement saying that attempts by certain party figures and YouTubers to attack the Lee administration with unverified claims and conspiracy theories were “highly inappropriate,” and that any claim raised in the public sphere must come with corresponding evidence and responsibility.

Jang, however, responded by announcing an emergency livestream at 10 p.m., stating:
“Rep. Han called this ‘a baseless conspiracy theory worse than street gossip,’ but regardless of what anyone says, my reporting concerns events that have already occurred and are unshakable facts.”

Former People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon also joined the controversy, posting on social media:
“The Lee Jae-myung administration has been caught attempting an indictment-withdrawal scheme by none other than Kim Ou-joon. They should first say these seven words: ‘Lee Jae-myung will not withdraw indictments.’”

He added:
“This is a clear crime. The claim did not come from the opposition but from Kim Ou-joon’s broadcast—the power broker of the Democratic administration—so its credibility is very high.”