Is Park a puppet of her confidant?
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By Lee Han-soo, Park Si-soo
Is President Park Geun-hye a remote-controlled puppet?
Her critics stoked such speculation when an influence-peddling scandal surrounding her longtime confidant Choi Soon-sil surfaced last month.
Presidential aides have called it an “absurd imagination that was hard to think of even in the feudal era.” But such defensive voices seem to be cracking following cable channel JTBC’s exclusive report Monday night that fired a direct salvo at President Park and her aides with what the report said was undeniable hard evidence.
According to the report: Choi has been kept informed of Park’s secret decisions and public speeches through emails sent to her from the presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae. The controversial emails reportedly contained nearly 200 classified presidential documents, including 44 drafts of presidential speeches. Choi is believed to have edited the speech drafts and sent them back to Cheong Wa Dae for Park to read. Choi is also believed to have interfered in the government's personnel management and other internal affairs by taking advantage of her closeness to the President.
Choi, 60, is the daughter of Park's mentor Choi Tae-min and ex-wife of Park's former secretary Chung Yun-hoi.
Many questions remain unanswered, including who helped Choi keep informed of secretive presidential affairs; whether Choi actually peddled influence with President Park, and how Choi was able to earn the power to control Park despite being an “outlier” who has never worked in the present government.
The JTBC report is believed to have laid bare the secretive ties between Choi and Park, which made it possible for Choi to control state affairs behind the scenes and disrupt the government’s chain of command.
Speeches allegedly found on computer in Choi’s office
According to JTBC, the 200 documents related to the presidential office, including the 44 presidential speech drafts, were saved on a computer allegedly used by Choi, which was secured by the broadcaster. The computer was found at one of Choi’s offices in Seoul.
Among the speech drafts was Park’s speech in the German city of Dresden, which was praised by the international community for showing her vision for the unification of the two Koreas.
Park delivered the speech on March 28. But according to the report, its draft saved in the computer was opened one day earlier.
A draft of a presidential speech is considered top secret, so the draft’s existence in the computer reflects a critical loophole in the security of confidential information involving the President.
According to JTBC, the version saved on Choi’s computer had red marks in some of the phrases that were later revised when the President made the speech.
The copyedited dates on the documents varied from an hour to four days, with some of the documents’ final revised ID confirmed as Yoo-yeon, the former name of Choi’s daughter, Chung Yoo-ra.
Other documents included unpublished logs of Cabinet meetings and personnel reshuffle information.
The presidential office seems to be shocked by the news, but was trying to look calm.
“We are confirming the exact detail,” presidential spokesman Jung Youn-kuk told reporters Tuesday morning, breaking the silence he had kept since the report Monday night. He did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, a Gallup Korea poll, released Friday, found that only 25 percent of respondents approved of Park's job performance -- the lowest since she took office in February 2013. Her endorsement has been declining since the scandal was reported last month.