Prosecutors on Tuesday morning raided Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung's house in Bundang amid suspicions that Lee's wife used a pseudonymous Twitter handle to spread fake news about President Moon Jae-in and other political rivals of her husband.

Prosecutors raided the house in search for a missing smartphone that Lee and his wife Kim Hye-gyeong used during the race for the presidential candidacy in the Minjoo Party, when Lee was up against Moon and others. Lee has claimed he lost the phone.

Prosecutors also searched his provincial office in Suwon. Lee said he is ready to cooperate with prosecutors and expressed hope that his wife will be free from suspicion soon.

Kim is suspected of having conducted smear campaigns against Moon and others under the Twitter handle 08_hkkim since 2013. Lee denies the allegations and claims e-mail accounts linked to the Twitter account were hacked. </s> Prosecutors on Tuesday raided Gyeonggi Province Gov. Lee Jae-myung's office and home, apparently to search for his wife's old mobile phone believed to hold crucial evidence in investigations into her suspected role in political slander.



Prosecutors and investigators from the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office began the raid on Lee's home in Seongnam, south of Seoul, at around 9 a.m.







(Yonhap)

About the same time, another group of prosecutors searched Lee's office in Suwon in the presence of the governor and his lawyer.The raid was apparently intended to retrieve an iPhone used by Lee's wife, Kim Hye-kyung, from July 2016 until April this year, when allegations of her involvement in online slandering of Lee's election rivals surfaced.Kim, who is suspected of posting slanderous messages on social media sites via her mobile phone, changed her iPhone and phone number in April and told police investigators later that she was not aware of its whereabouts.Police recently identified the owner of the Twitter ID "Hyekyunggung Ms. Kim," who left numerous defamatory comments before and during elections in recent years, as Kim.Police suspect she wrote comments in December 2016 against President Moon Jae-in, then Lee's potential rival in the Democratic Party's primary for the 2017 presidential election. She accused Moon of using his influence to help his son land a job at a public institution years ago.Police also claimed she wrote in April this year that one of Lee's rivals in the DP primary for the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial election collaborated with the conservative opposition Liberty Korea Party.She faces charges of defamation and spreading of false information.Prosecutors believe Kim used the missing iPhone to write the two controversial posts.Tuesday's raids came eight days after police referred the case to the prosecution with an opinion of indictment.Kim was previously questioned by police but strongly denied any wrongdoing. Lee, former Seongnam mayor, has denounced the police for making politically motivated, baseless accusations while disregarding any evidence in Kim's favor. (Yonhap) </s> SEOUL (AFP/BLOOMBERG) - South Korean prosecutors on Saturday (Oct 29) raided the presidential Blue House, as well as the homes and offices of senior advisers to President Park Geun Hye, as she struggled with a corruption and influence-peddling scandal involving a close family friend.

The crisis centred around Ms Park's long-time confidante Choi Soon Sil has rocked her presidency, thanks largely to a lurid back-story involving talk of religious cults, shamanist rituals and corruption.

In Saturday's raids, prosecutors confiscated computers and documents from the homes of a top presidential adviser and two other aides as well as a deputy culture minister, Yonhap news agency said. They also searched some offices in the presidential Blue House complex, Yonhap said.

The investigators searched the offices of two presidential secretaries at 2pm in Seoul and may continue until Sunday, the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said in a text message.

It added that the homes of seven current and former government employees were visited in the morning.

It is the first time the Blue House has been searched since prosecutors unsuccessfully tried to enter the presidential complex in 2012 under President Lee Myung Bak over a corruption scandal involving his retirement home.

The move came ahead of a mass protest in Seoul, organised after it emerged that Ms Park had allowed Ms Choi, who has no official post or security clearance, to meddle in affairs of state.

Thousands of people were expected to turn out for the candle-lit demonstration and call on the president, whose popularity ratings have plunged to record lows, to step down.

Ms Choi is being investigated for using her ties to Ms Park to coerce money out of major conglomerates, but the real shock has been revelations that Ms Park had allowed Ms Choi to vet her presidential speeches and apparently advise her on crucial policy choices.

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Ms Park has publicly apologised and late on Friday she told 10 of her senior advisers to tender their resignations ahead of a reshuffle of her presidential office.

Ms Choi, 60, is the daughter of shadowy religious figure Choi Tae Min, who headed a cult-like group and was a long-time mentor to Park up until his death in 1994.

Media reports have portrayed Ms Choi as a Rasputin-like figure with an inappropriate and unhealthy influence over Park that she inherited from her father.

Ms Choi left the country for Germany in early September as reports of her alleged influence-peddling began to emerge.

An early banner displayed at the venue for Saturday's rally read "Choi come back, Park get out".

Ms Choi's lawyer said she was well aware of the "gravity" of the situation and was "willing to return home to be questioned and punished if she did anything wrong".

Prosecutors have taken in two of Ms Choi's close aides for questioning, including one who told reporters that Ms Choi had been behaving as Ms Park's de facto regent.
Prosecutors raid the house of Gyeonggi Province governor Lee Jae-myung amid suspicions that his wife used a pseudonymous Twitter handle to spread fake news about President Moon Jae-in and other political rivals of her husband.