Public outrage grows in South Korea over the use of right wing political influence to protect the family of Supreme Prosecutor Yoon Seok-yeol from prosecution over the years. Left of center media anticipate that Yoon is likely to be the first object of investigation by the Public Corruption office established by the recent fast track legislative reforms enacted into law earlier this year. In spite of the extreme efforts by the right to block that legislation, the very purpose of the prosecutorial reform was to prevent the corrupt use of prosecution powers for political purposes. Currently, it is this political corruption which the Yoon office is alleged to represent.
Yoon in the past has often been quoted as beholding to no person no matter how powerful and only dedicated to justice. This patina of impartiality has been stripped away in the recent disclosures about the role Hwang played in Yoon's bar discipline in December 2012, and the alleged role Na Kyung-won's husband played as judge in delaying pending investigations against Yoon's mother in law and wife for alleged business frauds. The photo above of Hwang and Yoon together in a partisan political setting rips away what is left of Yoon's professional image. Investigations against Hwang and Na for unlawful conduct interfering with National Assembly processes have gone nowhere, so the image itself represents a continuing conflict of interest by Yoon as the senior prosecutor of South Korea.
A current MBC story going viral in the alternative media alleges that a Channel A reporter from their legal coverage team, contacted a former CEO, Lee Cheol, from a private corporation called Sillajen and attempted to induce him to enter an arrangement to defame the head of the No Moo-hyun foundation, Yoo Shi-min, who has been an outspoken critic of the right. Yoo Shi-min's blistering accusations are often used by left leaning media against the leading lights in the United Future Party and specifically include Na Kyung-won, and lately, Yoon Seok-yeol. Lee Cheol and one of his former associates are the sources of the allegations. Lee Cheol has been in confinement pending charges of financial crimes.
It was reported by Lee that the Channel A reporter solicited a false report that Yoo Shi-min, the foundation director, had traded stocks in the corporation based upon inside information. The former corporate officer alleged the reporter told him that Channel A, in tacit cooperation with the prosecution office's request, would publish the defamatory information against Yoo Shi-min. The source said Lee was also requested to provide any financial information that could be used against persons connected to the incumbent political party or Blue House. According to the confidential source, connected to Lee, various threats and offers were made to Lee Cheol to induce his cooperation, including death threats, and threats to prosecute and imprison his wife. The Channel A reporter is alleged to have asserted a close relationship with the central prosecutor's office and the ability to see to it that Lee didn't get a prison sentence. Lee alleged that the reporter sent him letters which included threats, while he was confined in jail.
According to MBC News, the confidential source, alleged that he had met the Channel A reporter multiple times, who ultimately allowed him to hear a recording of incriminating conversations on the phone with a prosecutor allegedly close to Yoon Seok-yeol, as bona fides to support the illegal arrangement. According to the allegations as reported by MBC News, the source was confident that the voice in the recorded phone conversation was that of someone close to Yoon Seok-yeol, whose name has not been disclosed by MBC. Channel A News and the prosecutor's office deny all such allegations, and dispute the credibility of the news story by MBC or the existence of any corroborating evidence. According to MBC news, they have corroborated independently that their confidential source actually did meet with the Channel A reporter and they dispute Channel A's disavowal of knowledge of these meetings or their purpose which was stated as being intended to have an impact on the upcoming April 15 election cycle. A relatively well known finance minister and deputy prime minister from the Park Geun-hye administration, Choi Kyoung-hwan, had been implicated earlier in financial misconduct involving Sillajen investments. Allegedly, according to the confidential source there was a perceived need to muddy the waters of corruption in the prior conservative administration by implicating Yoo Shi-min or other pro-Moon politicians in the financial scandal.
Apparently, there are recordings of conversations between the confidential source and the Channel A reporter. Excepts of the recordings have been played on MBC news broadcasts. One potential defense on the part of Channel A is to disavow knowledge of the reporter's individual actions. The confidential source said phone records and text messages he had received from Channel A would refute their defense. Channel A is a subsidiary of Dong A media which owns DongA Ilbo, a major conservative newspaper in South Korea. The Minister of Justice, Chu Mi-ae made a statement concerning the affair, which she felt warranted an investigation, on the basis of a suspected improper relationship between the press and prosecution, and the possibility of a politically motivated investigation.
Update April 10: The name of the Channel A reporter alleged to have engaged with Lee Cheol by letter and met with his associate, has been dislosed by MBC as Lee Dong-jae ( 이동재 ). Han Dong-hun, formerly, chief prosecutor of the Pusan office, has been identified as the prosecutor alleged to have had an improper relationship with reporter Lee from Channel A. According to late reports, he has been transferred to the Human Rights Office of the Central Prosecutor's Office. Both Channel A and the prosecutor's office deny the allegations.
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