Prosecution to question scandal-hit presidential aide

By Jun Ji-hye

Prosecutors are expected to question President Moon Jae-in’s senior secretary for political affairs soon over bribery suspicions involving his former aides.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office said Wednesday that it is inevitable for them to summon and question senior presidential secretary for political affairs Jun Byung-hun as their investigation has been expanded to find out who was the final recipient of the suspected bribes.

“A plan to question Jun has yet to be decided, but we believe it will be inevitable,” a prosecutor told reporters.

Sources said prosecutors and Jun are currently setting the schedule for his questioning.

The imminent questioning of Jun is apparently pouring cold water on the high popularity of President Moon who has stressed the importance of ethics and integrity of government officials. In a Realmeter survey, conducted from Nov. 6 through 10, Moon’s approval rating was tallied at 70.1 percent.

Three former aides to Jun were arrested over suspicions they laundered some 110 million won out of a total of 300 million won that Lotte Homeshopping donated to the Korea e-Sports Association in 2015 when Jun was its honorary chairman.

Given that the TV home shopping channel has little to do with computer games, speculation has been growing that the large donation to the association may have been part of efforts to seek Jun’s influence as an incumbent lawmaker in its efforts to renew its broadcasting license.

At the time, Jun belonged to the parliamentary committee on broadcasting and communications.

Jun has denied his suspected involvement in the case, saying that everything will be unearthed if the prosecution conducts a fair investigation.