The Seoul High Prosecutors' Office ordered a reinvestigation of allegations against two senior presidential aides from the former Moon Jae-in administration who were previously cleared of charges regarding alleged meddling in the 2018 Ulsan mayoral election.

The order issued on Thursday concerns three former Moon government officials and two former Ulsan officials, including former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk and former presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok.

The high office found it necessary to conduct an additional probe into the then-presidential office's alleged order for Ulsan Police to investigate corruption allegations against then-opposition conservative candidate Kim Gi-hyeon.

The office also mentioned allegations that the then-administration bribed the DP's other primary candidate Lim Dong-ho to agree to the single candidacy of Song Cheol-ho.

A reinvestigation order is issued when a higher-ranked prosecutors' office finds deficiencies in the previous investigation following a complaint.

In January 2020, the prosecution indicted former Ulsan Mayor Song, former Ulsan police chief and main opposition Democratic Party(DP) Rep. Hwang Un-ha, and eleven others for alleged violation of the public election law. The charges against Cho and Im were dismissed due to lack of evidence.

The ruling People Power Party(PPP) submitted a formal complaint and last December, the Seoul Central District Court included Cho and Im in its ruling when convicting former officials who had worked in Cho's office at the time.