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Former President Park Geun-hye is entering Seoul Central District Court in Seocho district for a hearing to await the ruling on her arrest warrant

Former president Park Geun-hye has finally been put in jail. After Kang Bu-yeong, the judge in charge of warrants for the Seoul Central District Court, issued an arrest warrant for charges including bribery on Mar. 31, Park suffered the ignominy of being South Korea’s third former president to be jailed. While personally, this was no doubt a very unfortunate development, legally speaking, it was the obvious outcome.

While there were some who said that Park should be shown lenience out of respect for her status as former president or for the sake of national harmony and unity, it’s significant that the court has affirmed once again the great principle of the rule of law, namely, that all citizens are equal before the law. We hope that Park’s arrest will be a turning point confirming that the Republic of Korea is a democratic republic and ensuring that politics and leaders who think of themselves as above the Constitution and the law and who roll back democracy have no place in this country.

Considering the charges that had already come to light during the series of investigations conducted by the Prosecutors’ Special Investigation Headquarters and by the investigative team led by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo and the attitude that Park Geun-hye has shown, it is no exaggeration to say that her arrest had been foreshadowed from the very beginning.

While there was reportedly a sharp debate over the 13 charges during Park’s arrest warrant hearing, Prosecutors had already amassed a considerable amount of evidence during their three investigations. After being summoned by Prosecutors and even during the arrest warrant hearing, Park reportedly defended herself using the argument that “not a single penny” had entered her bank account.

But considering that Park and Choi Sun-sil had closely discussed and “plotted” the establishment, operation and personnel appointments for the Mir and K-Sports Foundations, it’s obvious that the mere fact that the money extorted from the chaebols didn’t enter Park’s bank account doesn’t mean she didn’t commit a crime. Since Park must have received the assistance of her attorneys, it’s incredible that she would have made such claims while disregarding the basic principles of the Criminal Act.

Furthermore, since Prosecutors have even confirmed that Choi had been paying for Park’s lodgings and clothing, it’s necessary to conclude that the two of them shared financial interests. Since Prosecutors have acquired evidence including former Blue House Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs Ahn Jong-beom’s work notebooks and testimony from Samsung and public servants at the Ministry of Health and Welfare, it was only natural for Park to be charged with bribery.

Park’s attorneys appear to have argued that it would have been impossible for Park to destroy evidence because her associates were already in jail and because her removal from the presidency meant she could no longer exercise her influence. But there are various circumstances indicating that Park has already tried to destroy evidence, including her attempt to coordinate testimony with Ahn Jong-beom, former Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Economic Affairs, and her conversations with Choi Sun-sil on burner phones. The mere fact that a search of the Blue House was rejected on absurd grounds suggests that destruction of evidence could still be occurring.

Even now that Park is in jail, Prosecutors must make every effort to acquire additional evidence through searching the Blue House and other means. And by thoroughly investigating several other charges they have not been able to substantiate thus far, they must put an end to the debate over those charges.

In particular, there needs to be further investigation into the question of the Choi family assets. Park Young-soo’s investigative team said that one of the reasons they ran into difficulties when tracking these assets was because of a lack of cooperation from related government agencies. It’s possible that the Choi family used assets accumulated since the time of Choi Tae-min (Choi Sun-sil’s father) by extorting money from chaebols (just as with the Mir and K-Sports Foundations) as the seed money for amassing a fortune worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Moving forward, such allegations must be thoroughly investigated, whether by Prosecutors or by a separate special prosecutor. That’s the only way to uncover the truth of the sham legend erected by Park Geun-hye and her father Park Chung-hee. That will also help wake up the people who have been deluded by fake news into waving the South Korean flag in front of the Samseong neighborhood of Seoul and City Hall.

With Park’s arrest, the curtain is slowly falling on her era. It’s time for the Park Chung-hee paradigm, which has lasted for more than 40 years, to be laid to rest so that we can start moving toward a new kind of government.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]