The Hankyoreh newspaper said Monday it could not confirm any direct influence on its articles by a financial transaction that one of its senior reporters had with a key culprit in a high-profile development scandal.

Announcing the result of its nearly two months of internal probe into the case, the daily said it reached the conclusion after fully examining its news coverage on the development scandal, including columns and other stories that had been written by the senior reporter since 2019.

Seok Jin-hwan, the reporter, was fired early last month following revelations that he borrowed a total of 900 million won ($692,041) from Kim Man-bae, who is standing trial in connection with the apartment development project in the Daejang-dong district in Seongnam, south of Seoul, in 2019.

The scandal has drawn keen attention due to opposition leader Lee Jae-myung's alleged involvement.

The money trade between Kim and the Hankyoreh reporter led to turmoil at the newspaper with its editor-in-chief resigning to take responsibility and its CEO vowing to follow suit as soon as candidates for his successor are picked.

The probe report said the money transaction was quite "irregular" since he did not write a promissory note, provide collateral or make any clear promise on the interest.

Then a conflict of interest occurred as he was promoted to a position that could influence the newspaper's handling of the development scandal in September 2021, when media reports emerged on the scandal. Seok, however, did not report his money transaction to the company at that time or make any effort to clear the conflict of interest in violation of the newspaper's rules of coverage, according to the report.

The newspaper once again apologized for the improper transaction and vowed to reform its news coverage system and practices in a notice printed on the front page of Monday's edition. (Yonhap)