Prosecutors should not put off summons of Chung Yoo-ra

Chung Yoo-ra (20), the daughter of President Park Geun-hye’s confidante Choi Soon-sil, appears in many parts of the so-called Choi Soon-sil gate. Prosecutors summoned and grilled on Sunday Samsung Electronics President Park Sang-jin, who is suspected of having transferred 3.5 billion won (2.98 million U.S. dollars) to support Chung’s horseback riding training. President Park’s demand to root out corruption in the sports community and her personnel reshuffle that resulted in demotion of a director general and a manager at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry stemmed from Choi’s discontent about Chung’s ranking at No. 2 in a national horseback riding championship. Chung is also suspected of having been admitted to Ewha Womans University through special favor in 2015.

Despite this, prosecutors are not summoning Chung, who is staying in Germany. When Choi returned to Korea to receive prosecutorial investigation, Choi’s attorney said, “Choi feels pain about her daughter, who is only 20 years old, expected to come under heavy criticism, and sincerely hopes that the public exercises lenience and forgive her.” It is now even suspected that the prosecution might have prompted Choi to return to Korea by promising her not to subpoena her daughter. With Choi denying allegations, we can hardly understand why prosecutors are not summoning Chung, who can verify suspicions surrounding Choi.

Prosecutors recently summoned tycoons of major conglomerates, and asked whether fundraising by the Mir Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation was done through use of influence or by force, but failed to get answers other than "Over the years, we have donated funds to support government-leading projects.” This situation results from overly hasty and accelerated investigation schedule aimed at concluding questioning of President Park Geun-hye even before indicting Choi, without securing any evidence for use to pressure the business tycoons. If prosecutorial investigation is as sloppy as this, there is a chance that prosecutors may only be able to secure testimonies simply corresponding to what President Park told her Cabinet meeting about fundraising for the two foundations last month, to suggest that the two foundations were founded with collective support and generosity from companies.

The ruling and opposition parties agreed Monday on adopting special independent counsel probe into the Choi Soon-sil gate. The special independent counsel is set to be recommended based on agreement by two main opposition parties, namely the Minjoo Party and the People’s Party. The independent council will have to summon Choi’s elder sister, Choi Soon-deuk, and her nephew, Jang Si-ho, to grill them as well. If prosecutorial investigation fails to break the guideline set by the embattled president, the probe could be directly handed over to an independent council, which will end up disgracing the prosecution.

송평인기자 pisong@donga.com