Prosecutors will investigate Myung Tae-kyun for the first time after transferring the probe of “Myung Tae-kyun’s Influence-peddling Scandal” to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office. The probe into allegations involving President Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife is expected to begin in earnest.

According to a report by the Kyunghyang Shinmun on February 24, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office's dedicated investigation team (headed by Deputy Chief Prosecutor Lee Ji-hyung) plans to travel to Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, on the 27th to investigate political broker Myung. The investigation will reportedly take place on the 27th and 28th. Myung, who is being held at the Changwon Detention Center, is reportedly unable to travel to Seoul for a long time due to health reasons.

The prosecution transferred major cases, including President Yoon and his wife’s illegal involvement in the nomination of in by-elections, to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office on the 17th among the cases related to Myung, which were investigated by the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office. Seven prosecutors, who led the Changwon District Prosecutor's Office’s investigation team, were transferred to the Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office. The investigation team remaining at the Changwon District Prosecutors' Office is in charge of maintaining the prosecution of cases already prosecuted and investigating the remaining cases based in the Changwon area.

Legal circles believe that prosecutors will use the investigation into Myung as a springboard to launch a full-scale investigation into Yoon and his wife, Kim Keon-hee. Yoon and Kim are accused of receiving more than 80 poll results from Myung for free during the last presidential election, in exchange for influencing the nomination of former People’s Power Party lawmaker Kim Young-sun in the by-election in 2022. Prosecutors confirmed that Myung sent Yoon and Kim unpublished results of opinion polls by the Future Korea Research Institute at least four times. The investigation also includes allegations that Myung manipulated the results of polls during the primary of the presidential election to make Yoon's approval rating higher than Hong Joon-pyo's.

Other powerful ruling party politicians, including Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, have also been implicated in the allegations against Myung. When Hong and Oh denied that they knew Myung personally, he immediately refuted it, signaling further revelations.

Myung's lawyer, Nam Sang-kwon, appeared on MBC radio on the same day and said that Myung and Hong had met “three more times besides the meeting in June 2021” and had submitted relevant evidence to prosecutors. The last time they met, which was on January 19, 2022, Myung was present at a meeting between President Yoon and Hong, he claimed. The lawyer said Oh met with Myung and former lawmaker Kim Young-sun on January 20, 2021, ahead of the Seoul mayoral election, and told him, “If you help me, I will give you (Kim) the position of president of the Seoul Housing and Urban Corporation (SH). However, Oh denied it.

Prosecutors are expected to analyze the investigation into Myung and weigh when to summon First Lady Kim and others. The investigation into President Yoon is expected to take place after the decision of his impeachment trial is made next month.