Prosecutors raid Seoul police office to investigate deadly fire

SEOUL, Jan. 30 (Yonhap) -- State prosecutors raided Seoul police headquarters Friday as they ratcheted up their investigation into a recent crackdown that left five squatters and one police officer dead in a fire, an official said.

The raid, the first of its kind, came as pressure mounted for Kim Seok-ki, the
head of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency who has been tapped to become the
country's top police official, to resign.
Kim is alleged to have led last week's violent police crackdown on dozens of
squatters at a worn-down Seoul building that was set to be redeveloped.
The protesters used firebombs to keep the SWAT team at bay, but five of them were
killed when a prefabricated shelter on the top of the building collapsed in
flames. An officer was also killed while trying to move in.
"We did the raids because senior police officers' testimonies were not enough to
clarify whether there were problems with the operation, including the deployment
of the SWAT team," a prosecution official said.
The official said prosecutors also raided the police station that oversees the
Yongsan district in an attempt to clarify the extent to which Kim was involved in
the crackdown. The incident, widely captured on television, has also sparked a
political uproar.
The South Korean prosecution has the legal power to supervise and direct the
national police, and the police agency has struggled over the years to win
independent law enforcement authority.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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