Prosecutors on Monday launched an investigation into snowballing allegations that a former aide to President Park Geun-hye intervened in state affairs without holding an official position in government.
The investigation came after the local daily Segye Times reported Friday that Jeong Yun-hoe met with presidential office officials to oust Kim Ki-choon, the current chief of staff to Park, citing an internal document of Cheong Wa Dae dated Jan. 6.
Jeong, who served as the president’s chief of staff when she was a lawmaker, holds no official title in the Park administration, though he regularly met with incumbent presidential secretaries and received briefings from them, according to the report.
The presidential office filed a libel suit against reporters and asked the prosecution to look into whether the author of the internal report violated the law on the management of public records.
The Seoul Central Prosecutors’ Office probing the case will call in accusers within this week and summon a police officer who is suspected to have leaked the document, according to sources at the prosecution office.
The police officer, only identified by his surname Park, once again denied the allegation brought against him.
“I did not leak the document,” Park, who has been banned from leaving the country amid the investigation, told reporters at a Seoul police station.
The prosecution office said two departments will separately investigate into libel charges and how the document had been drawn up and leaked.
The investigation will be led by a team of prosecutors handling most high-profile cases. The team is often compared to the now-defunct Central Investigation Department of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
President Park, meanwhile, condemned the leak of the document as an act “disturbing the nation’s foundation,” calling for a thorough probe into the case.
“I think it’s problematic for (the media) to speculate by reporting as if there were an unofficial line or a powerful figure behind the scenes without checking their sources,” Park said in a regular meeting with her aides.
Jeong’s lawyer also flatly denied the allegation, adding that he will take legal measures against the newspaper.
“We are preparing to take legal measures over the media report,” Jeong’s lawyer told reporters.
Earlier, Jeong filed a separate libel suit against a reporter of monthly news magazine Sisa Journal for an article that alleged that he had hired someone to follow Park’s younger brother Ji-man.
Not much information is known about Chung apart from that he was a key adviser to the president from 1996-2004. He is also the son-in-law of late pastor Choi Tae-min, who had a close relationship with the president. (Yonhap)
