Eight of 10 Koreans back jail for Park Geun-hye

By Kim Hyo-jin

President Park Geun-hye

Eight out of 10 South Koreans believe President Park Geun-hye should go to jail if she is removed from power through the Constitutional Court’s ruling, which is likely this week, according to polls released Tuesday.

A Korea Society Opinion Institute poll conducted on March 3-4 showed that 78.2 percent of 1,015 respondents supported imprisonment.

Only 18.2 percent said Park should not be detained as a courtesy to a former president. The remaining 3.6 percent declined to answer.

Another poll, by the Hankyoreh daily, showed 67.8 percent believed Park should be jailed, while 17.6 percent opposed this.

The results reflect public disappointment about Park, who has been uncooperative with investigators.

“Park fanned public antipathy by evading investigation while her crime carries heavy weight,” said Korea University Law School Professor Jang Young-soo.

The counsel team looking into the presidential corruption scandal asked to question Park face-to-face, but she refused.

The team sought a search and seizure warrant for Cheong Wa Dae early February but Cheong Wa Dae rejected it on the grounds that top secrets might be leaked.

The team ended its 90-day investigation at the end of February, resulting in the indictments of 30 people, including Park’s former secretaries.

Park, who allegedly conspired with her confidant Choi Soon-sil to take $38 million in bribes from Samsung, was not charged because she is protected from indictment while retaining the presidential position. The independent counsel left the task of her indictment in the hands of the prosecution.

A special investigator, one of the independent counsel team members, said in a radio interview Tuesday that Park’s refusal to cooperate was one of the biggest hurdles in the investigation.

“Although we knew it would be difficult to investigate the President, her responses were beyond our expectation,” said special investigator Lee Jung-won.

“If we had been able to search and seize at the presidential office, I believe we could have acquired critical clues on Park’s seven missing hours on the day the Sewol ferry sank and about suspicions on her illegal medical treatment.”

Referring to Park’s alleged corruption, Lee said, “It is the right thing to put Park under detention for questioning if her impeachment is upheld.”