Health Insurance body admits data search of ex-top prosecutor
By Jun Ji-hye
Chae Dong-wook Former top prosecutor
The National Health Insurance Corp. (NHIC) confirmed Monday that one of its officials, indentified as Han, searched for personal data pertaining to the alleged lover of former top prosecutor Chae Dong-wook.
“It was just a simple check such as whether Lim (Chae’s alleged lover) registered with the national health insurance service. Han did not check detailed information such as her medical records,” said an NHIC spokesman. “Han did not receive any instructions from Cheong Wa Dae regarding the search.”
According to the NHIC, when Han was asked if he was ordered to do so by someone, he replied: “I cannot remember.”
Separately, the presidential office denied media reports that it checked obstetrician records and school documents pertaining to Lim and Chae’s alleged illegitimate son.
“In June last year, Cheong Wa Dae’s special inspection bureau obtained intelligence relating to a woman who described herself as Chae’s lover,” said the presidential office in a statement. “To ascertain the truth, relevant senior secretary offices, together with police, checked personal data of those involved.”
However, the presidential office said, “The special bureau has never checked school documents or medical records.”
It said that the special bureau is tasked with checking accusations against high-ranking officials before transferring them to the prosecution, and the intelligence it obtained last year was transferred to Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office.
The explanations followed reports that the presidential office began digging into Chae’s lafe from June last year with the purpose of removing him from the post.
According to reports, these attempts included a senior presidential secretariat for education checking a teenage boy’s elementary school records. The office for welfare affairs allegedly had an official from the NHIC check the obstetrician records of Lim, mother of Chae’s alleged illegitimate son.
The controversy surrounding the alleged son, which the conservative Chosun Ilbo daily first disclosed, led to Chae’s resignation last year.
Rumors that Cheong Wa Dae and the justice ministry orchestrated Chae’s resignation abounded because he was said to have been unpopular with the presidential office over his intense investigation into the National Intelligence Service’s alleged intervention in the 2012 presidential election, which conservative President Park Geun-hye won by a slight margin.
In December, Jo O-young, then a presidential administrator, was summoned by the prosecution for allegedly searching for records of the child’s resident registration number and family relations registration with help from Cho I-jae of the Seocho District Office in Seoul.