The fact that Korean conservatives were able to mobilize so many people to protest against ROK Justice Minister Cho Kuk forced President Moon to have him resign:
In an unexpected move, Justice Minister Cho Kuk offered to resign Monday amid an ongoing probe into corruption allegations involving his family.
“I judged I should not add a burden to the president and the government regarding my family affairs. I think the time has come for me to step down for the successful completion of prosecution reform,” he said in a statement.
“I was mere ‘kindling’ for reforming the prosecution. My role as ‘kindling’ has come to an end.”
President Moon Jae-in formally accepted Cho’s resignation offer, Cheong Wa Dae said. The president signed a related document at 5:38 p.m., Cheong Wa Dae spokesperson Ko Min-jung, said.
Yonhap
The fact that he resigned I think also may mean there must be some good evidence against him to substantiate the corruption charges. It will be interesting to see if prosecutors continue to go after Cho Kuk and his family on the corruption charges now that he has resigned.
This is very interesting because the current Prosecutor General was appointed by the Moon administration just this past July:
Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl denied a media report linking him to an infamous sex party hosted by construction contractor Yun Jung-cheon, senior prosecution officials told the JoongAng Ilbo on Friday.
The Hankyoreh newspaper on Thursday published a report saying the prosecution, during its reinvestigation of a sex scandal involving former Vice Justice Minister Kim Hak-eui, obtained testimony from Yun that Yoon also received sexual favors at his private villa in Gangwon, but did not look into it.
Yoon’s name appeared in the records of the initial investigation into the sex scandal in 2013, but prosecutors reinvestigating the case this year did nothing about it, according to the report by a journalist from the newspaper’s affiliated weekly magazine Hankyoreh 21.
Joong Ang Ilbo
You can read more at the link, but for those that don’t know, the Hankyoreh is a left wing publication which means the report on Yoon was an intentional attack from the left on someone the Blue House appointed.
This could mean that the Blue House is using the Hankyoreh report to try and pressure the Prosecutor General to squash the investigation into the ROK Justice Minister, Cho Kuk for corruption.
I think at this point President Moon is not going to replace his allegedly corrupt Justice Minister no matter how low his poll numbers drop:
President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating has declined to 44.4 percent amid political turmoil over his justice minister, coupled with news reports of deepening economic woes and North Korea’s firing of a submarine-based ballistic missile, a local pollster said Monday.
According to Realmeter, the rating hit the lowest in its weekly survey since the president took office in May 2017.
Commissioned by a cable news channel YTN, Realmeter conducted a phone survey of 2,007 people nationwide, aged 19 or older, throughout last week, except for the National Foundation Holiday that fell Thursday. The margin of error is plus or minus 2.2 percentage points.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
It would be interesting to know what was said on this phone call because it definitely has the appearance of interfering with an ongoing investigation:
The president’s message followed a disclosure that the minister made a phone call to the head of the prosecution team when prosecutors raided his house for investigation into the scandal on Monday.
A lawmaker with the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) raised the issue during a parliamentary interpellation session Thursday and Cho admitted that he had such a phone conversation.
The minister said it was not intended to affect the team’s field operation, and that he just asked for help in getting his wife to relax.
The LKP claimed that Cho deserves impeachment for the phone call itself as he was apparently abusing his power as justice minister.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
You know you're in Korea when there's a K-pop concert with #NCTDREAM on stage, surrounded by "Free Park Geun-hye / Get rid of commies + Moon Jae-in + Cho Kuk" rally. It's a sound check, but still. LOL! #엔시티드림 pic.twitter.com/4ikZmfPswJ
— Raphael Rashid (@koryodynasty) September 28, 2019
1/
— bmk218 (@bmk218) September 23, 2019
As we have expected last year, the current pro-NK jusapa govt is at the tipping point. These lawless Jucheist ppl are collapsing by their corruption cases. There are still a lot more to come. Cho Kuk is a breaking point of Moon govt. https://t.co/RUNak8yoS6
It seems to me that whatever evidence that would have existed would have been long removed from the house by now:
The prosecution raided the residence of Justice Minister Cho Kuk on Monday as part of a widening probe into corruption allegations involving his family, including suspected forgery by his wife.
State prosecutors are looking into allegations that Cho’s wife forged a college presidential citation to help her daughter enroll in a medical school. Cho’s wife was indicted on those charges early this month.
Investigators were sent to his house earlier in the day to collect computer hard drives and documents.
The prosecution is probing suspicions that his wife, a professor surnamed Chung, may have sought to destroy evidence linked to the alleged forgery and Cho may have aided and abetted such acts.
Yonhap
You can read more at the link.
