hankyoreh

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae at the National Assembly on Sept. 14. (photo pool)

South Korean prosecutors who have been investigating allegations that the son of Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae received special treatment during his mandatory military service found that there was no abuse of authority or other illegality in connection with Choo’s son taking an extended leave of absence and decided to close the case without indicting Choo, her son, or anyone else involved. The prosecutors concluded that there was no evidence that Choo was directly involved in any illicit requests for favors even after finding text messages in which Choo provided a former aide with the contact information of an army officer and received updates about her son’s situation, making it likely that the outcome of the investigation will remain controversial.

The first criminal division of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors’ Office, under Kim Deok-gon, announced on Sept. 28 that it would not file charges against Choo; her son, surnamed Seo; her former aide, surnamed Choe; or the local military commander, surnamed Lee. The prosecutors concluded that Lee, a lieutenant colonel, had given verbal approval for Seo to take two consecutive periods of sick leave (June 5-14 and June 15-23) and then several days of personal leave (June 24-27) in 2017. Since Seo was unable to provide corroborating documentation, such as an order to go on leave, the prosecutors ordered a captain on active duty surnamed Kim (a support officer in Seo’s unit) and another captain surnamed Kwon (commander of a support unit) to report to the prosecutors’ unit at army headquarters to provide confirmation.

The prosecutors said that Choo had not directly exercised her influence and that she should therefore not be charged with abetting desertion from military service, concocting a deceptive scheme for the purpose of avoiding military service, or using a deceptive scheme to prevent the execution of official duties. Despite finding text messages on the mobile phone of Choo’s former aide in which Choo gave the aide the contact information of the support officer in her son’s unit and was updated on developments, the prosecutors concluded that this was not “clear evidence of the justice minister’s direct involvement in asking for a favor” and decided not to charge Choo with violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act. According to the prosecutors, Choo said her former aide had only informed her of what she needed to know in a written response to prosecutors’ questions on Sept. 26.

“I would like to once again say I’m sorry that the Korean public has been disturbed by this groundless and reckless political attack on me and my son. I will focus on completing prosecutorial reform by quickly launching the body for investigating crimes by high-ranking officials and by adjusting the powers for handling investigations,” Choo said in a position statement after the investigation results were released.

By Lim Jae-woo, staff reporter

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