The Democratic United Party on Wednesday filed a complaint against Seoul police chief Kim Yong-pan over alleged irregularities in the investigation into possible election interference by the National Intelligence Service.

The complaint, submitted to Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, alleges that the Seoul police commissioner abused his authority and violated the Police Officers Act to influence the police investigation into the case.

The main opposition party claims that Kim ordered Suseo Police Station to make a progress report favorable to President-elect Park Geun-hye on Dec. 16 without fully investigating the case.

At the time, the Suseo station was investigating allegations that an NIS agent identified by the surname Kim had posted comments criticizing the progressive bloc and DUP presidential candidate Moon Jae-in on popular websites.

Although the police had initially stated that analyzing the NIS agent’s online activities would take some time, a public progress report was made on Dec. 16 saying that evidence of comments for or against either Park or Moon was not found.

Since then, however, evidence indicating that the NIS agent posted comments criticizing Moon and opposition lawmakers during work hours has emerged, fueling speculation that the investigation was interfered with.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)