Park to be arrested or not?
A 43-year-old judge to decide on whether to issue warrant
By Jung Min-ho and Lee Han-soo
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Kang Bu-young
Former President Park Geun-hye will attend a court hearing Thursday to defend herself against the prosecution’s request for an arrest warrant.
According to the prosecution, Park will attend the session scheduled for 10:30 a.m. at the Seoul Central District Court when Judge Kang Bu-young will review the validity of the warrant.
The decision came after she had an emergency meeting with her lawyers for several hours after the prosecution asked the court Monday for the warrant, saying it had no other choice given the seriousness of her alleged crimes and the risk of her destroying evidence.
Her fate is now in the hands of the 43-year-old judge, who will decide whether to detain her on 13 charges, including bribery and abuse of power.
The decision will be given between late Thursday night and early Friday morning.
Kang is the youngest judge of the three judges the court assigned to handle arrest warrant-related issues. He was born on Jeju Island, graduated from Korea University’s college of law and passed the bar exam in 2000. He started his judicial career at the Busan District Court in 2004. He has dealt with arrest warrant-related issues at the Seoul court since February.
His close friends described him as a “conservative but reasonable” judge who “won’t make a decision that defies dominant public opinion.”
“Although Judge Kang is conservative, he does not tend to go against the general trend,” a close friend told The Korea Times. “It is unlikely he will make a controversial ruling.”
He refused to elaborate further because of the issue’s sensitivity.
In announcing the move to seek an arrest warrant for Park, the prosecution said the risk of her destroying evidence was obvious because she has denied all of the charges against her despite plenty of evidence.
Prosecutors added that it would be unfair not to request a warrant, given that most key suspects in the scandal have already been arrested.
A special unit under the prosecution is amassing evidence and combing through all investigation documents to argue for the approval of the warrant.
It plans to send the two senior prosecutors who questioned Park ― Han Woong-jae and Lee Won-seok ― to the hearing.
Few people expected Park, who even rejected the Constitutional Court’s request to attend her impeachment hearings, would attend the hearing.
Many experts, however, say her appearance will have little effect on the court decision. The prosecution noted strong evidence, including former presidential secretary An Chong-bum’s notebook and audio files of her phone conversations with former presidential secretary Jeong Ho-seong, has already been collected.
If granted, it may be the beginning of a long time behind bars for Park. If found guilty on the bribery charge, she could face a life sentence ― many believe it would be a minimum of 10 years.
Park has reportedly been shocked and upset, following the prosecution’s decision to request the warrant.
Many of her staunch supporters, including Rep. Kim Jin-tae of the Liberty Korea Party, have criticized the prosecution, demanding the resignation of Prosecutor General Kim Soo-nam, who was appointed by Park in 2015.
With major rallies expected near the court, police plan to deploy hundreds of officers there to deal with any emergency.
Other allegations brought up against park include abuse of power and giving state secrets to an unauthorized person, her close friend Choi Soon-sil who held no official government post.
Park’s abuse of power was already acknowledged by the Constitutional Court in its ruling to uphold her impeachment earlier this month.
But the court did not specify the nature of the money private companies gave to two shady foundations Choi controlled. While companies that provided the money, including Samsung, claim they were extorted by Park into making “donations,” prosecutors concluded the money was part of “deals” with the former president and Choi.