Moon orders review of influence-peddling scandal
Secretary Cho Kuk to look into Chung Yoon-hoi and Sewol committee dissolution
By Lee Kyung-min
President Moon Jae-in on Thursday ordered his new presidential secretary for civil affairs Cho Kuk to look into the corruption scandal involving former President Park Geun-hye and her staff.
The probe will focus on whether the civil affairs division and the prosecution under the Park administration exercised their powerful discretion to suit the government’s interests.
Expectations have been growing about Moon’s top campaign pledge to “eliminate the social ills of the previous administration."
Moon told Cho to look into the 2014 suspected influence-peddling scandal involving Chung Yoon-hoi. Chung was suspected of having exerted enormous sway over wide-ranging state affairs despite not holding any official government post.
Chung, the ex-husband of Choi Soon-sil, Park’s longtime friend and confidant, was chief of staff to Park when she founded a conservative party in 2002.
He is believed to have since left the political scene.
According to multiple media reports, Cheong Wa Dae officials said President Moon is seeking to grasp the full picture of the circumstances at the time, because he considers the Chung scandal the precursor of the Choi Soon-sil scandal.
Moon also indicated that the truth remained veiled and that the Choi scandal could have been prevented had the civil affairs division and the prosecution stringently carried out their duties.
Moon also called for a thorough investigation and subsequent punishment of all figures involved in the Choi scandal.
He said the public feared an effective investigation might be discontinued because of the transfer of the findings of the independent counsel-led special team to the state prosecution.
Moon also ordered secretary Cho to look into the disputed completion of operations last September of the special investigation committee for uncovering the truth behind the sinking of the ferry Sewol.
The order comes almost seven months after the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries unilaterally ended the committee’s operation period last Sept. 30.
The measure was based on the government’s interpretation of the special law governing the committee.
The law stipulated the committee could operate for up to a year after its creation and that its activities could also be extended for another six months if necessary.
While the committee claimed it had not been formed until August when the government finalized allocating the necessary budget and manpower, the government said it was formed on Jan. 1, 2015, when the special law took effect.
Committee members at the time said the government failed to offer any legal basis for ending their activity.
The members said the government initially requested the Ministry of Government Legislation to interpret the committee’s operation period, but withdrew the request after finding precedents against it.