Cheong Wa Dae created both 'blacklist and whitelist' to control artists

The independent counsel team spokesperson Lee Kyu-chul speaks during a press briefing at its office in Daechi-dong, southern Seoul, Monday. / Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

W200 bil. public fund misused by conservative Park administration

By Lee Kyung-min

Cheong Wa Dae not only created a cultural “blacklist,” but also a “whitelist,” based on which it granted conservative artists and denied liberal artists state subsidies, the independent counsel team said Monday. More than 200 billion won ($172 million) was misused in the process.

Lead counsel Park Young-soo and his team held a press briefing wrapping up the 90-day investigation and released a 100-page report.

Seven former and incumbent Cheong Wa Dae officials were indicted for abuse of authority and coercion including former presidential chief of staff Kim Ki-choon and two former culture ministers, Cho Yoon-sun and Kim Jong-deok.

The remaining four are former Vice Culture Minister Chung Kwan-joo and three presidential secretaries for political affairs (Shin Dong-chul), education and cultural affairs (Kim Sang-yule) and cultural and sports affairs (Kim So-young).

The team said the seven indicted figures conspired with President Park and her confidant Choi Soon-sil, the central figure in the influence-peddling scandal, to create and manage the blacklist as a means of gaining the upper hand in cultural content creation and distribution.

The blacklist, the team said, was drafted by the Cheong Wa Dae political affairs division and reviewed by the education and culture secretary before being handed to the culture ministry. More than 9,000 liberal artists were blacklisted, which would limit their likelihood of receiving state support.

The culture ministry “controlled” the artists through the Arts Council Korea (ARKO), Korean Film Council (KOFIC) and the Korea Publishing Publication Industry Promotion Agency (KPIPA), the three key art organizations to which artists file applications seeking state support for their projects.

The team said the indicted figures removed 19 ARKO committee members in charge of granting subsidies without specifying a reason and had 325 art projects subsequently canceled.

They also had KOFIC cancel screenings of eight low-budget movies in state-controlled theaters and had KPIPA withdraw support for publishers of 22 books.

One such publisher is Munhakdongne, which published a book titled “The Country of the Blind,” co-written by 12 writers criticizing the government, in October 2014, six months after the sinking of the Sewol ferry.

One billion won in subsidies granted to publishers such as Munhakdongne to support the liberal arts and literature were canceled.

The whitelist, the team said, was created by one of the presidential secretary offices to support 75 organizations between 2014 and 2016.

Cheong Wa Dae asked the Federation of Korean Industries (FKI), the key business lobby involved in the scandal, to give 6.8 billion won to the President Park-designated organizations, the names of which remain undisclosed. The pertinent investigation material was handed over to the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.

The team said charges against Choi include peddling influence in personnel management at financial and public institutions to gain personal benefit.

Choi helped Lee Sang-hwa, a branch manager of KEB Hana Bank in Germany, become global marketing manager in return for helping her and her daughter get a loan at a lower-than-market-interest rate in Germany.

The team said Choi, through a scrapped state business called Myanmar K-Town worth 76 billion won ($65 million), helped Yoo Jae-kyung, a former executive of Samsung Electro-Mechanics, become ambassador to the country in return for acquiring shares from a company that was scheduled to undertake state business there.

Choi, the team added, also exercised influence to name Kim In-shik, 68, former chief of the Korea International Exhibition Center, as chairman of the Korea International Cooperation Agency, a development aid organization under the foreign ministry, which initially led the state project in Myanmar.