Former Blue House Official Says that Cho Kuk Abused Power to Shutdown Probe of President Moon’s Political Ally

GIKorea | October 27, 2020 | Politics-Korea | 2 Comments

Anyone following the corruption allegations against Cho Kuk and his family should find none of this news surprising:

In this file photo, then-Senior Presidential Secretary for Civil Affairs Cho Kuk, right, and Park Hyoung-chul, then-anticorruption secretary, enter a Blue House ceremony to appoint Yoon Seok-youl as the new prosecutor general on July 25, 2019. On Friday, Park testified against Cho in a trial that Cho had ordered him to shut down a Blue House audit into Yoo Jae-soo, a senior financial official, when they worked together in 2017. [YONHAP]

A former presidential secretary in charge of anticorruption has made a series of statements that Cho Kuk, a former justice minister and senior secretary for civil affairs in President Moon Jae-in’s administration, abused his power to shut down a probe into one of the president’s political allies.

Park Hyoung-chul offered the testimony Friday during a Seoul Central District Court trial in which he and two others — Cho and Baek Won-woo, former presidential secretary for civil affairs — are all charged with abuse of power.

Testifying during the seventh session of their trial, Park said that Cho had ordered him to shut down the Blue House’s audit into corruption allegations against Yoo Jae-soo, a former public servant and a political ally of Moon.

Park said the December 2017 audit indicated that Yoo, who was serving as the financial policy director of the Financial Services Commission, had received bribes. Park said his office wanted to continue the investigation or send the case to the investigative authorities, such as the Board of Audit and Inspection, but Cho decided to shut it down.
Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but at this point with Moon’s ally Choo Mi-ae installed as the Justice Minister, Cho Kuk is now pretty much protected from being prosecuted for any crimes.