hankyoreh

President Park Geun-hye was both a co-conspirator with Choi Sun-sil and the principal offender in the ongoing influence-peddling scandal. In announcing their interim findings on Nov. 20, the prosecutors’ special investigation headquarters said it had booked Park as a suspect after she emerged as a conspirator on “almost all charges” against Choi, former Blue House Senior Secretary to the President for Policy Coordination Ahn Jong-beom, and former Blue House secretary Jeong Ho-seong. If this much has been determined without all of the questioning complete on everyone’s charges and some investigation remaining into the other people involved, then it is likely there are more and bigger charges awaiting the President.

Chief Prosecutor Lee Young-ryul announces the findings of a special prosecutors investigation into the Choi Sun-sil scandal

The charges against Park are more serious than had been known before. She appears to have actively gone into business arranging concessions for Choi. Choi’s Playground Communications and her acquaintance’s KD Corporation were private businesses that had nothing do with any sort of “good intentions” involving Park’s governance. Park actively mentioned the companies and requested “cooperation” in meetings with the heads of Hyundai Motor and other chaebol. The two companies ended up with 1.1 billion won (US$931,000) in supply orders from Hyundai Motor, and 6.2 billion won (US$5.2 million) in advertising orders. Park personally listed people chosen by Choi to have hired at KT, and ordered the selection of Choi’s company as an advertising agency for KT, earning it 6.8 billion won (US$5.8 million) in advertising orders. This is more than just turning a blind eye to Choi’s grasping - this is a matter of the President using her authority to pressure companies into granting Choi benefits. It’s nothing short of organized crime-style extortion.

at Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office

Similarly, the Mir and K-Sports Foundations were the result of coercive fundraising efforts, in which the President lent her support according to Choi‘s plan. Prosecutors believe Park had already ordered Choi to take over the Mir Foundation at the time its establishment was being planned. Choi also had Jeong communicate to Park that the foundation’s establishment should be hurried along. Everything went quickly from there, with the foundation taking shape according to Choi’s ideas and personnel plan and companies paying every penny of their set “contributions.” The K-Sports Foundation was created along similar lines, with Choi doing the planning and Park issuing the orders. Choi planned projects that would benefit her and had them communicated to the President, who met with Lotte Group chairperson Shin Dong-bin to receive a pledge of 7.5 billion won (US$6.3 million) to build athletic facilities; Ahn was entrusted with the practical matter of receiving what came out to 7 billion won (US$5.9 million) in the end. Legally, this is called “abuse of power” and “coercion” - but to the layperson, it’s organized blackmail and extortion. What it definitely is not is “part of governance functioning” and “normal duties,” as the Blue House has claimed.

Park has also lied. In a statement on Oct. 25, she said the only documents Choi had been given were “some speeches and publicity materials,” and that she had “stopped once the Blue House aide system was fully in place.” But the prosecutors‘ investigation revealed that 47 of the Blue House documents passed along to Choi qualified for charges of leaking of secrets in the course of government duties. The delivery dates were not confined to early in Park’s administration, but continued up to April of this year. They were reportedly conveyed by email or in person “on orders from the President” - which means she not only passed state secrets on to Choi until very recently, but also brazenly lied about it.

The findings are certainly shocking, but the prosecutors’ investigation also still seems unsatisfying. They ruled the companies that offered contributions and concessions to have been victims - to have done something they had no obligation whatsoever to do because they felt cowed by the abuse of power and coercion from the President and her Senior Secretary for Economic Affairs. But it’s quite strange for the prosecutors to have made the charge of coercion, rather than extortion or third-party bribery. We get the sense they may have deliberately been trying to spare the companies. From the evidence prosecutors are said to have secured and their investigation findings to date, charges of bribery seem plausible. With a number of the companies, it seems likely that some kind of illicit request was made in exchange for the contributions: Samsung desperately needed the administration‘s cooperation on the merger of Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T to sustain its management right succession, Booyoung needed a tax audit to be smoothed over, Lotte was facing its own investigation by prosecutors, and CJ and SK needed pardons or paroles for their group chairmen. The prosecutors have said they plan to continue an additional investigation into this. What we cannot have is a half-baked investigation that lets the companies off the hook.

Nov. 20. (pool photo)

Now that the criminal charges against Park have become obvious, we cannot let her get away with them. Though the prosecutors are not yet prepared to charge her with bribery, abuse of power is itself a grave violation of her responsibilities. Park was involved in various crimes, and her involvement was neither passive nor accidental, but active: joining in plots, giving orders and taking the lead. This constitutes a serious violation of law, which is the rationale for impeachment laid down by the Constitutional Court. Park’s resignation or impeachment are also inevitable in the sense that she has betrayed the trust of the people and has forfeited her right to be responsible for running the country through her shameful criminal behavior.

The prosecutors must not stop trying to call Park in for questioning as a suspect. It is also critical that they raid the Blue House to prevent staff from destroying documents. The special prosecution also needs to be accelerated to force Park, who is refusing to be questioned by prosecutors, to shed light on these affairs.

The National Assembly cannot delay Park’s impeachment any longer. It is in that sense that it was appropriate for the leading presidential candidates in the opposition parties to call for gathering support in the National Assembly to pass a bill of impeachment against Park and for discussing plans to set up a temporary cabinet to minimize the power vacuum during the time of transition. The active cooperation not only of the three opposition parties but also of the ruling Saenuri Party will be necessary if the country is to overcome this crisis caused by Park‘s deviant behavior.

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