By Kang Seung-woo
Cheong Wa Dae said Tuesday that eight presidential aides, who sued the vernacular Segye Ilbo for defamation in the “memogate scandal,“ would comply with prosecutors’ request for them to appear for questioning.
“They will comply with whatever calls prosecutors make during their investigation,“ presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said in an afternoon briefing.
“The plaintiffs will actively cooperate with the prosecution investigation by submitting their telephone call records.“
The briefing came hours after reports that the aides would not appear for questioning.
According to officials at the Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office, lawyer Sohn Kyo-myung spoke to prosecutors on behalf of his clients. He is also said to have conveyed their request that the investigation be conducted in a way that helps them avoid appearing in person.
The eight aides including President Park Geun-hye’s closest advisers ― Lee Jae-man, secretary for administrative affairs; and Jeong Ho-sung and An Bong-geun, two personnel secretaries ― also filed a libel suit against the newspaper’s reporters.
Park also seems to have reached a conclusion that the newspaper report was a defamation of her closest secretaries.
The sign of reluctance to cooperate with prosecutors was being amplified by an apparent self-contradiction by President Park during Monday’s meeting with her senior secretaries.
On the one hand, Park called the leak of internal documents to the press an “act of disrupting the order by which state affairs are conducted,“ but then referred to the contents of the leak as something at the “level of rumor.“
“Making claims without checking basic facts will put the nation into chaos and cause conflict within our society,“ she said. “We should make sure that such rumors do not unsettle the country.”
Her remarks came three days after the Segye Ilbo acquired copies of surveillance reports on Park’s former aide Jeong Yun-hoe, indicating a power struggle underway between a group of presidential aides and her younger brother Park Ji-man.
Jeong was a former senior aide to the President when she was a member of the National Assembly.
“An investigation to confirm whether Jeong meddled in state affairs should come ahead of dealing with the documents leak, but the latter is being stressed,“ Prof. Park Kyung-sin of the Korea University Law School said.
“What President Park said is equivalent to ordering the prosecution to handle the case in accordance with her wishes.“
Cheong Wa Dae asked the prosecution to find out whether the author of the internal report violated the law on the management of public records.
The author, surnamed Park who is a police chief-superintendant, is suspected of leaking the document, something he denies.
The Chosun Ilbo, another local daily, reported Friday that Jeong had contact with Lee Jae-man, citing Cho Eung-chon, a former presidential secretary. This contradicts Jeong who said in an interview that he has had no contact with presidential secretaries since 2010.
“In response to a news report in March that Cho’s office secretly conducted an internal investigation into Jeong, the latter tried to talk with Cho,“ Min said. Cho is regarded as an acquaintance of the President’s younger brother.
“However, Cho did not respond to the calls and Jeong asked Lee to get him to answer his phone calls,“ the spokesman said.
“However, there was no meeting between Lee and Jeong.“
Min also told Cho to tell the truth to prosecutors rather than unilaterally arguing his case via an interview.