'Cheong Wa Dae spied on Supreme Court chief'
Rep. Kim Sung-tae, head of the National Assembly committee investigating the scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye’s confidant Choi Soon-sil, holds up a document submitted by Cho Han-gyu, a former president of the Segye Ilbo. The document states that Cheong Wa Dae conducted illegal surveillance on the daily lives of individuals including the Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae and Choi Sung-joon, a former chief of the Chuncheon District Court, at the fourth hearing at the Assembly, Thursday. / Yonhap
Top court calls for thorough investigation of illegal surveillance
By Kang Seung-woo
Cho Han-gyu, left, a former president of the Segye Ilbo, speaks during a parliamentary hearing at the National Assembly in Seoul, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Seo Jae-hoon
Cheong Wa Dae conducted illegal surveillance on the daily lives of the Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae, and Choi Sung-joon, a former chief of the Chuncheon District Court, according to testimony given at a National Assembly hearing, Thursday.
Cho Han-gyu, a former president of the daily Segye Ilbo, said he has eight leaked presidential documents that have yet to be made public, and one of them concerns the presidential office’s illegal surveillance of ranking officials of the judiciary.
Cho’s revelation was made during the fourth hearing into the corruption scandal involving President Park Geun-hye and her confidant Choi Soon-sil.
The Segye Ilbo first shed light on the shadowy connection between Park and Choi in November 2014, while he was president, after obtaining 17 confidential documents, drawn up by a police officer monitoring people around the President.
“The surveillance was just about Yang’s private life, including mountain climbing, not about possible irregularities, and the people he met,” Cho said.
“Whether Choi used his official vehicle for personal reasons and his possible bid to become a Supreme Court justice were also looked into.”
Choi Sung-joon is currently the head of the Korea Communications Commission.
Cho also said that liberal novelist Lee Oi-soo was also kept under surveillance, raising speculation that the presidential office may have conducted other illegal activities.
He added: “Such acts mean the collapse of the separation of powers and a violation of the constitutional order.”
Following the revelation, the Supreme Court expressed displeasure, calling for a thorough investigation into the case.
“We express deep regret over the alleged surveillance as it violated the principle of the independence of the judiciary,” the court said in a statement, denouncing it as “anti-constitutional.”
“We urge those linked to the surveillance to give a full account of it.”
Cho claimed that he quit after facing pressure from Cheong Wa Dae over his daily’s reports on the President.
Citing another confidential document, Cho disclosed that Chung Yoon-hoi, the President’s former aide and Choi’s former husband, helped a person get appointed to a ranking official post after receiving a 700 million won ($592) bribe.
“As far as I know, the official is a deputy prime minister-level one, and I heard that Chung took the money in return for the appointment,” Cho said, declining to specify the official because he is an incumbent.
Currently, there are two deputy prime ministers — Yoo Il-ho for economic affairs and Lee Joon-sik for social affairs, while Hwang Chan-hyun, the chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, and the two deputy parliamentary speakers, Reps. Park Joo-sun and Shim Jae-cheol, are also deputy prime ministerial officials.
Another witness, former special presidential inspector Lee Seok-soo, did not rule out the possibility that President Park was directly involved in bullying the nation’s business groups into “donating” funds to the Mir and K-Sports foundations that Choi controlled.
“I thought that the President may run the two foundations after her retirement (in February 2018),” said Lee, who quit in August following Cheong Wa Dae’s alleged anger over his investigation into corruption allegations involving Woo Byung-woo, a former senior presidential secretary for civil affairs. Woo was regarded as one of the most influential figures at Cheong Wa Dae.
However, Lee added that he did not find any connection between Choi and the two foundations at the time.
The two non-profit organizations, established to promote the nation’s Korean culture and sports to the world, raised a combined 80 billion won ($67.92 million) from the nation’s major conglomerates with the help of the Federation of Korean Industries, the country’s biggest business lobby group.