Woo Byung-woo’s case in prosecutors’ history

Woo Byung-woo, former presidential senior advisor for civil affairs, underwent a court review on his arrest warrant sought by the independent counsel on Tuesday. Woo is being charged with abuse of power. He allegedly had five director generals and directors at the Culture, Sports and Tourism Ministry fired for not being cooperative with the presidential office’s policy, and forced a director general-level senior official at the Fair Trade Commission to resign for rejecting a targeted probe of CJ E&M. More than anything, we regret that Woo, who is gravely responsible for dereliction of duty by acquiescing Choi Soon-sil’s alleged manipulation of state affairs, is belatedly undergoing full-swing legal actions in the last-minute investigation into the Choi Soon-sil scandal by the independent counsel.

According to the findings from the independent counsel team’s probe, Woo screened the eligibility of executives at the Mir Foundation and the K-Sports Foundation at Choi’s request on behalf of her by mobilizing employees at the senor presidential secretary for civil affairs. The office should have prevented and corrected forceful fundraising from companies by the foundations, but effectively "assisted" Choi to be able to manipulate state affairs. A probe of civilians in the name of eligibility screening constitutes inspection of civilians, which is a grave crime. “The senior presidential secretary for civil affairs office was no different from a private affairs assistance agency (that conducts secret investigation of individuals for a fee),” a source in the independent counsel team said.

Choi Soon-sil reportedly collected personal records on candidates for the heads of the Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutors’ Office, the National Police Agency, and the National Tax Service even before the inauguration of the Park Geun-hye administration. Some news reports suggested that five of the 19 people whose personnel records had been collected were appointed to the posts in question. This is something impossible without involvement of the president or the senior presidential office for civil affairs office. Nonetheless, when asked by reporters whether he knew Choi or not while appearing at court on Tuesday, Woo replied “I don’t know her.” But Choi Cheol, former policy adviser to the Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister who took witness stand at the Choi Soon-sil trial on the day, testified that “Goh Yeong-tae once said ‘Choi is getting some information from the senior presidential office for civil affairs office,’” statement that renders people to doubt the credibility of Woo’s testimony.

A senior presidential secretary for civil affairs is the official who reads the public’s sentiment and intention and conveys it to the president, detects corruptions committed by the president’s aides and relatives and takes disciplinary action to assist in state administration. However, while Choi Soon-sil was behind the masterminding and manipulation of state affairs by influencing President Park, Woo executed manipulation of state affairs by controlling personnel affairs. If his office thoroughly investigated and detected secretive unofficial power elites behind the president during the Chung Yoon-hoi (aide to the president before he got elected) scandal, the country would not have faced the ongoing fiasco in the first place. Even so, the Woo Byung-woo faction in the prosecution failed to monitor and keep Woo in check at all, let alone taking disciplinary action against him. The Woo Byung-woo case will remain as a grave humiliation in the history of the Public Prosecutors’ Office.