Prosecutors on Thursday summoned a former official who had led public relations for the ruling Saenuri Party over allegedly breaching the Political Fund Act by demanding free campaign videos, investigators said.

Cho Dong-won, who led the party’s publicity headquarters in the run-up to the April 13 general election, entered the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office at around 2 p.m. without answering reporters’ questions on his charges. He is suspected of pushing an advertisement firm to produce election campaign videos, worth some 80 million won ($71,550), for free.
 

The related prosecutorial investigation kicked off in July, after the National Election Commission filed a complaint against Cho along with one of his colleagues and the head of the ad company.

The videos in question included the “Run, National Assembly” series, which had featured then-chairman Kim Moo-sung and other leadership members reaching out to communicate with the people.

The current law, which bans nonmembers from providing the party with free goods or services, hands down a maximum five-year jail term or 10 million-won fine.

Cho, a renowned advertisement copywriter, first joined the ruling party ahead of the 2012 general election. He steered the party’s unprecedented “image reform,” project, changing its name from the former Grand National Party to the current Saenuri and its symbolic color from blue to red.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)