Prosecution searches foreign ministry over judiciary scandal

By Kim Jae-heun

Prosecutors searched the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Thursday, as part of an ongoing investigation into the alleged abuse of power by the National Court Administration (NCA), which allegedly attempt to gain support from Cheong Wa Dae and various ministries during the previous administration in setting up a de facto “Second Supreme Court.”

It is alleged the NCA under former Supreme Court Chief Justice Yang Sung-tae pressured the top court and other lower courts to give favorable rulings to the government in politically sensitive cases.

Yang and other court officials were seeking the then Park Geun-hye administration's approval for the second top court for smaller cases, thus easing the workload for the “main” Supreme Court and creating more top judiciary positions.

As part of the move, the prosecution suspects Yang and the NCA had the Supreme Court delay making a ruling in a compensation suit involving Korean victims of forced labor during World War II and two Japanese firms, a diplomatically-sensitive issue, in an attempt to win the foreign ministry's support.

The Supreme Court had already ruled in favor of the victims in 2012 by overturning a high court ruling and sent the case back to the high court, which then ordered the Japanese companies to compensate the victims. But the companies appealed this decision in 2013, but the top court did not deal with the case for five years, for unclear reasons, before resuming reviewing it last year.

Prosecutors suspect Yang had the issue delayed as the ministry was negative about the compensation and he needed to curry favor with the ministry to expand judges' opportunities to work at overseas diplomatic missions.

They believe there was a similar “political bargaining” attempt in a suit filed in early 2016 against the Japanese government by 12 sexual slavery victims of the Japanese military during World War II. The suit was filed after the Park administration signed an agreement with Japan that “settled” the matter in return for 1 billion yen ($8.95 million).

The ministry submitted a statement to the Supreme Court in November that year, saying that a ruling in favor of the sexual slavery victims could threaten the relationship between Korea and Japan.

In response to the prosecution search, the ministry said it will sincerely cooperate with the probe.

Currently, Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha is on a business trip to Singapore to attend the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Prosecutors also sought court warrants to search the NCA and judges' offices along with the foreign ministry, but a local court turned down those requests, saying they lacked the necessary grounds for the issuance of warrants.