Suspicions remain over military nurses at Cheong Wa Dae

By Kim Bo-eun

Controversy is growing over two military nurses who were working at Cheong Wa Dae on the day of the Sewol ferry disaster. This is in relation to President Park Geun-hye’s seven hour absence from her official duty that day.

The issue surrounding the nurses is based on suspicions that Park was receiving a cosmetic procedure at the presidential office on the day of the deadly Sewol disaster on April 16, 2014. She was unable to explain her absence during the critical hours immediately after the incident occurred.

Cheong Wa Dae had initially denied a report from a local broadcaster that there was a record of entry of the military nurses from the Armed Forces Medical Command to the presidential office on the day of the disaster.

However, the Ministry of National Defense said Monday that military nurses work at the presidential office every day.

“The nurses were not dispatched, but worked there as regular staffers,” defense ministry spokesman Moon Sang-gyun said. However, Moon declined to elaborate as to why Cheong Wa Dae needed them to work there.

Cheong Wa Dae acknowledged Tuesday that this was true.

“We said there was no entry record of the military nurses because they work here,” presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk said. He added, “Neither of the two nurses or any other medical staffers performed any procedures on the President that day.”

This account has only added greater suspicion as to why Cheong Wa Dae is giving such inconsistent explanations.

Last week the presidential office issued a refutation of rumors with a timeline of the President’s reaction to the ferry disaster. However, the explanation only generated greater suspicion, as it showed she only received reports via phone calls and documents and did not convene an emergency meeting for seven hours.

Suspicions about the military nurses’ involvement in a cosmetic procedure arose after a former doctor from Chaum, an anti-aging clinic, who allegedly prescribed Park’s medication to her scandal-ridden confidant Choi Soon-sil, said that military nurses were in charge of giving intravenous shots to the President.

The doctor, Kim Sang-man, who became a medical advisor to the President, said he sometimes went to Cheong Wa Dae to give Park injections.

Meanwhile, the military nurses have not provided their account, as one is receiving training in the U.S. and another is working at a provincial hospital.

Suspicions have also been raised that the nurse who is overseas was provided favors in being selected for the training because she worked for the presidential office. The defense ministry dismissed this allegation.