[AI Library] Chapter 8: A Philosophy of Investigation
The Han Dong-hoon Story
Chapter 8: A Philosophy of Investigation
Kim Kyung-jin
The Han Dong-hoon Story
PART 02 Strong Against the Strong, Weak Against the Weak (強强弱弱) Han Dong-hoon · Original Text 03
You must be able to explain it in three lines.
This was what Han Dong-hoon most frequently told junior prosecutors.
It meant that no matter how complex a case, its essence must be simple.
He believed that what the suspect did and why it was wrong had to be understandable to ordinary citizens, not legal experts, with just three lines of reading.
It is easy to explain things in a complicated way. It is difficult to explain them simply. Only by piercing to the core can something become truly simple.
There was another principle.
Even when stripped of embellishment, the investigation must have legitimacy.
The legitimacy of an investigation does not come from political circumstances or reading the intentions of power. The standard should be whether it is fair before the law and whether it protects the weak and corrects the illegality of the strong. Han Dong-hoon maintained this principle throughout his life.
There is a keyword that runs through Han Dong-hoon's life.
Strong Against the Strong, Weak Against the Weak.
Strong against the strong, weak against the weak. It was a philosophy that the law must be applied even more strictly against the illegality of those with power and money.
Many people in the world live the opposite way. They bow their heads before the strong and raise their voices before the weak. They think that is realistic, that it is clever. Han Dong-hoon was different.
In 2003, thirty-year-old Han Dong-hoon was appointed as a prosecutor in the Central Investigation Division of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. That same year, he took on a major conglomerate ranked third in Korea's business world.
The SK Group stock improper trading case.
Evidence emerged of improper gains worth around 80 billion won and instructions for off-the-books deals. Investigating conglomerate corruption was never easy, then or now. Media attention, political pressure, corporate lobbying. Invisible hands made the investigation difficult. Han Dong-hoon remained unmoved, gathered evidence, and indicted those involved for arrest. The trial concluded with a guilty verdict confirmed.
Three years later in 2006, Han Dong-hoon faced another conglomerate.
The Hyundai Motor Group slush fund case.
Han Dong-hoon, handling this case in the Special Investigation Division 2 of the Seoul Central District Prosecutor's Office, traced the suspicion of slush fund creation. As a result, those involved were arrested and sent to trial on charges of breach of duty and embezzlement. In 2007, a public official became the target.
The National Tax Service Commissioner misconduct case.
That the highest-ranking public official overseeing the nation's taxes had committed misconduct was a betrayal of the people. Han Dong-hoon pursued this case to the end and brought charges.
There is something to note here.
The targets of Han Dong-hoon's investigations were not biased toward any particular political faction.
Regardless of faction, more strictly against the illegality of the powerful.
This was his consistent principle.
In 2015, Han Dong-hoon proved his abilities on the international stage.
An international economic case.
Tracking and punishing companies that had engaged in collusion worldwide required high-level expertise and international cooperation. Han Dong-hoon successfully led this case and received the 2015 Economic Prosecutor of the Year Award.
In particular, one of the cases he handled during this period would become the key to saving Korea twenty years later. The Lone Star foreign exchange card stock manipulation case.
At that time, Han Dong-hoon obtained a guilty verdict with a three-year prison sentence against the Lone Star representative. This criminal judgment would later become the decisive weapon that led Korea to victory in an international investment dispute worth 6 trillion won. That story will be addressed in Part Three.
There is another expression that captures Han Dong-hoon's investigative philosophy.
An evil person is someone who exploits others.
This is his definition of an evil person.
Whether someone has power or money, if they use it to trample on the weak, that person is evil. It does not matter if their status is high or low, if their education is good or bad. The moment they use their strength to exploit others, they become evil.
Han Dong-hoon did not back down before such evil people.
To the powerful, he was a feared name. To the people who had suffered harm, he was a name of hope.
Whether it was a conglomerate or the Supreme Court, if illegality had been committed, he would pursue it to the end and bring it before the bar of justice, they said. For the powerful, that name was an object of fear.
But Han Dong-hoon himself did not like that nickname.
He did not think of himself as particularly strong. He thought he had simply kept to his principles.
More strictly against the illegality of the strong.
That was the principle he had kept throughout his career as a prosecutor. The greater the power, the more money one had, the more strict the standard had to be applied to their illegality, he believed. After the investigation into state affairs manipulation ended, Han Dong-hoon moved to become the head of the Anti-Corruption and Violent Crimes Division of the Supreme Prosecutor's Office. And it was there that he came to lead the investigation into former Justice Minister Cho Guk. The storm that investigation brought about is as I described earlier.
A prosecutor who stands against power. A prosecutor who refuses to tolerate the unlawful acts of the powerful.
Such a prosecutor inevitably becomes a target of power.
But he chose that path himself.
And he never regretted that choice.
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Kim Kyung-jin
Attorney · Former Member of the National Assembly · AI Policy Researcher
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