President Lee Jae Myung has instructed authorities to investigate whether former President Yoon Suk Yeol attempted to interfere with a drug smuggling probe. 

The presidential office said in a press release Sunday that Lee had assigned Baek Hae-ryong, former chief of the criminal division at Yeondeungpo Police Station and the original whistleblower, to the joint police-prosecutor investigation team in charge of the case.

He also called on Chief Prosecutor Lim Eun-jung of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, who is leading the investigation, to assign additional prosecutors if necessary to uncover the truth.

The investigation began in June after Baek accused Yoon's presidential office of interfering with a police investigation into a 2023 smuggling case implicating multiple high-ranking Incheon Customs officials. 

Claims also emerged that former Prosecutor General Shim Woo-jung knowingly halted the probe.