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An image of Choi Sun-sil and President Park Geun-hye

Investigators disclosed on Feb. 15 that President Park Geun-hye spoke to Choi Sun-sil an average of more than two times a day using a phone registered under someone else’s name after Choi fled to Germany in the wake of her influence-peddling scandal in Sep. 2016. The investigative team led by Special Prosecutor Park Young-soo suspects that Park and Choi may have tried to coordinate their stories in a bid to destroy evidence. In a trial reviewing the legality of executing a search warrant for the Blue House, the investigative team argued that the search is necessary to acquire the burner phone that Park was using.

“We have confirmed that Choi spoke with the president on a mobile phone registered under another name a total of 127 times from the time that Choi went to Germany on Sep. 3, 2016, until she came back on Oct. 30, 2016,” said Lee Gyu-cheol, spokesperson for the Special Prosecutor, during the regular briefing. Choi departed for Germany on Sep. 3, while the press was looking into a variety of allegations against her. Using a phone that is registered under someone else’s name is a clear violation of the law.

The Special Prosecutor has determined that the burner phones used by Park and Choi were all registered and delivered by Blue House administrative official Yun Jeon-chu. These burner phones were both registered around the same time - in Apr. 2016. Since Yun testified before the Constitutional Court during a Jan. 5 hearing in Park’s impeachment trial that she had never seen Park using a burner phone, she is likely to be accused of perjury.

“These burner phones were used between Apr. 18, 2016, and Oct. 26, 2016, and Park and Choi had more than 570 phone conversations altogether during this time,” Lee said. That’s an average of three conversations a day, which is highly unusual considering that Park hardly ever received face-to-face briefings from members of her cabinet or senior secretaries at the Blue House.

The Special Prosecutor is focusing on the timing of Park and Choi’s phone conversations. On Oct. 24, 2016, JTBC reported that a tablet computer in Choi’s possession contained presidential speeches and other documents, and on 4 pm of the next day, Park made her first public apology. “Choi is someone who helped me in a difficult time in the past, and I received her help with the language of some of my speeches and public relations material. But I stopped doing that after the Blue House‘s system of aides was completely prepared,” Park said in that apology.

But Park remained in close contact with Choi on their burner phones until Oct. 26, the day after that apology. And after talking with Park on the phone that morning, Choi had her niece Jang Si-ho, tell her older sister Choi Sun-deuk to talk with Park on the phone once again that afternoon. Developments were moving quickly on that day, with even the Saenuri Party (now the Liberty Korea Party) agreeing to assign a Special Prosecutor to investigate Choi Sun-sil.

“We are confident that the burner phone that Park used to speak to Choi on the phone is located on the premises of the Blue House. Blocking the search of the Blue House severely compromises the entire investigation into the truth of the influence-peddling scandal,” argued Kim Dae-hyeon, counsel for the Special Prosecutor, during a hearing at the fourth administrative division of the Seoul Administrative Court. The court is hearing a request by the Special Prosecutor to reverse the Blue House’s refusal to allow a search warrant to be executed on its premises. Kang Gyeong-gu, counsel for the Blue House, countered by saying that “This insistence on a search when there are other methods available, such as in-person questioning [of Park], shows that this investigation is just for show.”

The court is likely to decide whether or not to reverse the Blue House‘s decision as early as Feb. 16.

By Seo Young-ji, staff reporter

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