A special counsel team investigating former first lady Kim Keon-hee has summoned a former prosecutor as a suspect for questioning.

At a press briefing on Monday, the special team said investigators plan to interrogate former prosecutor Kim Sang-min starting 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The team also began a search and seizure operation at the former prosecutor's residence earlier on Monday.

The former prosecutor was confirmed as the buyer of artwork by artist Lee Ufan, valued at around 100 million won, or around seven-point-two million U.S. dollars, which was found at the home of the mother-in-law of the former first lady's brother during a raid.

The former prosecutor is suspected of having tried to win the then-ruling People Power Party(PPP) nomination in the 2024 general elections with the help of the former first lady.

In April, the self-proclaimed power broker Myung Tae-kyun claimed that the former first lady asked him to help the former prosecutor win a parliamentary seat, in exchange for participating in the prosecution's probes into former Justice Minister Cho Kuk and his family in 2019.

After the former prosecutor failed to win the party nomination, he was appointed a special legal adviser at the National Intelligence Service(NIS).