'Selective' justice frustrates Koreans

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae leans back in her chair during a session at the National Assembly in Seoul, Tuesday. Answering to opposition lawmakers' questions, Choo denied allegations that she ordered her aide to make a phone call to her son's military unit in 2017 to forge his unauthorized leave as a sick leave. Yonhap

Controversy over justice minister mars Moon administration's key value of 'fairness'

By Jung Da-min

Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae is in the hot seat over her alleged illicit use of her prior position in the ruling party to help her son receive preferential treatment during his mandatory military service years ago.

She is the second justice minister to be embroiled in allegations of using influence for family members, following Cho Kuk who allegedly helped his children gain fraudulent admissions to prestigious universities, although the position is meant to require a higher morality in law abidance than other officials. There is now rising criticism that these allegations involving former and incumbent justice ministers are damaging the spirit of equality, fairness and justice ― the so-called key values that the Moon Jae-in administration has pledged to pursue since its inauguration.

The allegations concern Choo's son surnamed Seo, who was assigned to the Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (KATUSA) to carry out his mandatory service from 2016 to 2018.

Seo apparently had two consecutive sick leaves for a combined 19 days in June 2017 for knee surgery, which was rather long compared to other cases. However, there are no military record regarding this leave, although Seo's lawyer claims he submitted all the necessary documents at that time, including medical certificates from doctors. At the time Choo was the head of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK).

In response to the allegation, Defense Minister Jeong Kyeong-doo said at a National Assembly session Tuesday that the leave was approved according to due procedure but there were some administrative errors.

It is also alleged that after the 19-day sick leave, Seo did not return to his base and did not report this until his absence was noticed by a senior soldier two days later. He was also absent for a further two days. One of Choo's aides allegedly called an officer at Seo's unit and asked him to record the four-day absence as part of annual leave ― a request that was complied with ― according to the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), formerly the United Future Party.

The prosecution launched an investigation into the allegations in January but has not made much progress.

Choo has denied the allegations, which the opposition party has called "a case of power abuse."

After Choo denied them again at the Assembly session, Tuesday, PPP Rep. Shin Won-sik disclosed Wednesday a recording and transcript of a phone call between his aide and two officers of Seo's former unit. When the aide asked about the allegations, the officers acknowledged there had been a request about the leave made by Choo's aide via a phone call. "We wondered why Choo's aide was making the request as Seo's leave was a personal issue for Choo … because the role of a lawmaker's aide is to support the lawmaker in their official duty," one of the officers said in the recording.

The PPP claimed Choo was exercising undue influence to get her son's leave without due procedure. It filed a complaint with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office, Wednesday, against Choo, Seo, Choo's aide and three officers at Seo's unit who were in charge of managing leave-related administrative work.

A civic group also filed a similar complaint with the prosecution against Choo, Thursday, saying if the justice minister conspired to get her son's absence illegally declare as approved leaving using her position, it would be an insult to young people who sacrifice their precious time to protect the country.

Lee Jong-bae, the head of a civic group to protect constitutionalism, enters the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul, Thursday, to request investigation into Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae over her alleged using of influence to help her son have leaves during his military service. Yonhap

The allegations have brought criticism against the "unjust" justice minister and the Moon government's lenient attitude on such "fairness controversies" when ruling bloc figures are involved.

"Such a situation involving high-ranking officials and their family members is rather a coherent phenomenon observed repeatedly since last year's controversy surrounding former Justice Minister Cho Kuk," Myongji University professor Kim Hyung-joon said.

"The series of scandals involving high-ranking officials with the Moon administration is showing that the value of justice it has been talking about is not a universal one but applied selectively. The Moon administration has been lenient with its officials while being strict on others."

Shin Yul, a political science and diplomacy professor at Myongji University, said although the prosecution would investigate whether the allegations are true, the fact that such allegations are raised is not favorable for the Moon government.

"The younger generation, in particular, could feel that their right to compete under a fair system has been violated over series of fairness controversies including scandals surrounding former Justice Minister Cho and current Minister Choo, and the case of the employment of subcontracted workers at Incheon International Airport Corp.," Shin said.

The professor was referring to the airport operators' decision in June to hire subcontracted security workers as regular workers, which brought criticism from young people that the government was only focused on realizing Moon's pledge for "zero irregular workers," while depriving many jobseekers of opportunities.

Hwang Tae-soon, a political commentator, said while the Moon government gained power be enlisting public support with its values of fairness after the previous Park Geun-hye administration's downfall due to influence-peddling and corruption scandals, the recent controversies were no different from those under the previous administration.