By Park Yoon-bae
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On Sept. 28, the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office cleared Choo of suspicions that she exercised her influence to help her son illicitly extend his sick leave in 2017. Her exoneration, however, is unlikely to clean up the mess regarding the scandal. Instead, it is arousing more suspicions not only about the case but also the prosecution's investigation.
Minister Choo might think she and her son are lucky to avoid any criminal charges. But she faces a strong backlash from the public, not to mention severe criticism by the opposition parties, because she lied about what she had done for her child.
Nevertheless, Choo is categorically denying that she was dishonest. But her denial is complete and utter nonsense. She has kept claiming that she had never asked her aide to call a Korean Army captain to extend her son's sick leave after he underwent knee surgery at Samsung Medical Center.
During an interpellation session at the National Assembly, she stated that she had no reason to tell her aide to make such a phone call to discuss personal favors for her son. But it was later found that she sent the aide a cellphone message containing the captain's name and phone number.
She only admitted the transmission of the message. However, she has refused to explain why the message was sent. It makes no sense for her to argue that her aide voluntarily called the captain to make an "inquiry" about whether it was possible to have her son's leave extended without returning to his unit.
In every respect, her message must be interpreted as a direct request for her aide to call the captain to ask for a favor regarding her son's leave extension. No one knows this better than Choo, a judge-turned-politician who was a four-term lawmaker. She seems to be second to none at taking advantage of legal loopholes not to incriminate herself. How smart she is!
Some people say that if one tells a lie repeatedly, they may start to believe that such a lie is true. Choo could be a typical example of just that tendency. Now the question is if she believes she can deceive the people forever.
Furthermore, can Choo deceive herself forever? Probably she can if she has no qualms of conscience. She cannot and should not serve as justice minister anymore if she continues to betray her conscience.
The justice minister's top priority is to ensure the rule of law, one of the key pillars of democracy. However, Choo has come under fire for doing the opposite since she took the helm of the justice ministry in January.
The first thing she did as minister was to prevent Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl, an anticorruption crusader, from investigating the inner circle of President Moon Jae-in for suspected corruption, election rigging, power abuse and influence peddling. One of the core members is Choo's predecessor, Cho Kuk, who is standing trial on charges of corruption and admissions fraud involving his daughter.
Choo cannot avoid criticism for trying to save Cho by weakening Yoon's power as the top prosecutor in the name of prosecutorial reform. She has become the second justice minister to invoke their authority to directly command the prosecution over its investigation of a specific criminal case. That's why she has been called out for interfering with investigations.
More than anything else, reform of the prosecution ― one of President Moon's key campaign promises ― should focus on guaranteeing independence and political neutrality of the law enforcement agency. But she has gone all-out to tame the prosecution by undermining its independence and neutrality.
Choo has not hesitated in abusing her power to appoint, transfer and promote prosecutors. She has appointed loyalists of herself and President Moon to key posts at the prosecution. This certainly makes it possible for her to evade any charges from her own scandal.
What she has done so far is far from fair and just. It runs counter to President Moon's pledge to promote equality, fairness and justice. Her scandal has only proved that the country cannot usher in a fair society by shouting what turn out to be empty slogans.
It is inevitable to launch an independent investigation to lay bare the truth behind the favors scandal. Minister Choo should cooperate to get to the bottom of the case against her, instead of covering up any wrongdoings. This could be a small, but first step toward restoring the values of fairness and justice.
The writer (byb@koreatimes.co.kr) is the chief editorial writer of The Korea Times.
